France and Germany regret the verdict handed down against human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan. They were both arbitrarily arrested on April 13th 2023 on their way to the European Union delegation in Beijing. According to reports by human rights organisations, they were sentenced today to three years, and one year and nine months, respectively, on the charge of incitement to subversion.

We call for their immediate release and urge the Chinese authorities to put an end to intimidation and arbitrary arrests against human rights defenders, in accordance with their stated objective of strengthening the rule of law in China. We are concerned that foreign diplomats have not been allowed to attend the hearings.

Yu Wensheng received the Franco-German Human Rights Award in 2018 in recognition of his legal support for human rights defenders in China.