He was “dissatisfied with the current system of governance, and that gradually produced thoughts of subverting state power,” a court in Tianjin said in a statement explaining the verdict. By “hyping up hot incidents“, Wu “attacked the national system that is the basis for state authority and the constitution“, the court said. The prominent activist, with his recognisable bald head and glasses, became the subject of the state’s ire for using his larger-than-life online persona to draw public attention to human rights cases. But on Tuesday he denied he had been tortured, according to a video on the court’s official Weibo social media account. “On the question of torture, I produced a negative effect on and misled the public, and I again apologise,” he told judges.

Source: New Strait Times December 26, 2017 06:45 UTC