Court Sentences Activist To 4 Years Despite Terminal Illness Heilongjiang petitioner-turned-activist Zhang Shuzhi (???), who is terminally ill with cancer, has been given a four-year prison sentence. The punishment is in retaliation against her exercising the rights to free expression and peaceful assembly, and for defending others' rights, such as calling for the freedom of incarcerated activists. After hearing her case on December 21 last year, the Wangkui County People's Court convicted the 55-year-old Zhang of "picking quarrels and provoking troubles" on January 28. In its verdict, the court cited as "evidence" her petitioning activities going back more than a decade, claiming that her lodging of grievances and protesting of abuses "severely disrupted the social order." Despite Zhang's poor health, authorities have refused to release her on bail. Heilongjiang activist Zhang Shuzhi (???), terminally ill with cancer, has been sentenced to 4 years in prison. Zhang's case has been marred by violations of her legal and procedural rights. She was seized in Beijing on October 26, 2015, and brought two days later to the Wangkui County Detention Center. However, Heilongjiang police did not notify her family within the time prescribed by law, and she was not allowed at trial to be represented by a lawyer of her own choosing. During her trial in December, the presiding judge repeatedly interrupted Zhang, who struggled to talk due to her physical condition, when she tried to speak on her own behalf. Lawyer L�_ Fangzhi (???), who was only allowed to take on Zhang's case after the trial, was initially blocked by police from meeting with her. Among her most recent advocacy activities, Zhang had called for the release of imprisoned members of China's civil society, including Xu Zhiyong (???), Yang Lin (??), and Ding Jiaxi (???). Zhang was also part of a "rights defense team" that went looking for activist Cao Shunli (???) after she was disappeared in September 2013 and then called for Cao's release after her detention was confirmed. Cao eventually died in a Beijing hospital in March 2014 after being deprived of adequate medical treatment while detained. Along with other activists, Zhang had joined Cao Shunli to push for a civil society role in the UN Universal Periodic Review of China, including by taking part in sit-ins in the summer of 2013 in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. Zhang Shuzhi began petitioning in the 1990s after she lost wages due to illness and was forced to cover her own medical expenses, and in the process exposed corrupt practices by the head of her work unit. In retaliation for her activities, authorities have for years subjected her to threats and intimidation, beatings and other forms of physical abuse, and detention in black jails and Re-education through Labor facilities.[1]