Famous human rights defender Ding Jiaxi, sentenced to 12 years, has been kept indoors at Jiangbei Prison, barred from outdoor exercise; book purchases restricted, mailed books returned

(Rights Defense Network Information Center report) On June 12, 2026, this outlet learned: According to the latest notice issued by Ms. Luo Shengchun, the wife of lawyer Ding Jiaxi: “Lawyer Ding Jiaxi has continuously been kept indoors at Jiangbei Prison and is not allowed outdoor exercise. His purchase of books has been restricted, books mailed to him have been returned, and letters I sent him have been opened, detained, and had pages removed. He is not allowed to call me or his family members in China. I called to question the chief of the prison administration section, surnamed Xin, who is specifically responsible for monitoring and controlling him: You know that Ding Jiaxi has not committed any crime. Why are you bullying him like this? You harm others without benefiting yourself—aren’t you afraid of retribution? He said that he was fulfilling his duty and accused me of threatening him…”

Profile of Ding Jiaxi: Born on August 17, 1967, in Yichang, Hubei Province; former engineer with Shenyang Aviation Industry Corporation and Beijing Aviation Industry Corporation; formerly a member of the Enterprise Restructuring Professional Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association, a member of the Central Legal Affairs Committee of the China Democratic League, secretary-general of the Beihang Entrepreneurs Association, director of the Legal Committee of the Zhongguancun International Incubation Software Association, and others; former director of Dehong Law Firm; renowned human rights lawyer; one of the organizers and coordinators of the Beijing New Citizens Movement; political prisoner in China.

Since 2010, he had actively participated in efforts to promote educational equality for “children accompanying migrant workers in taking the gaokao locally.” On December 9, 2012, he and Xu Zhiyong, Sun Hanhui, Wang Yonghong, and others issued an open letter to Xi Jinping, the newly appointed general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, and other senior CCP leaders, demanding that 205 Chinese officials at or above the ministerial level, including Xi Jinping, take the lead in publicly disclosing their assets. They also broadly solicited citizen signatures, gathering more than 8,000. These activities touched the CCP’s vulnerable and sensitive nerves, and on April 17, 2013, Beijing police criminally detained him on charges of “illegal assembly” and held him at the Beijing No. 3 Detention Center. On May 21 and November 4, 2013, Beijing police successively changed the charges against him to “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and “gathering a crowd to disturb social order.” On January 27, 2014, Beijing authorities tried him on the charge of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order.” However, because serious violations of law occurred during the trial and the result of the case was clearly unfavorable, he had no choice but to announce in court that he was revoking the authorization of his defense lawyer, forcing the court to announce an adjournment and schedule a verdict for another date. On April 18, 2014, after a retrial by the Haidian District Court of Beijing, he was ultimately sentenced to three years and six months in prison for “gathering a crowd to disturb order in a public place.” He was later sent to Qianjin Prison at Chadian Station in Tianjin to serve his sentence. He was released after completing his sentence on October 16, 2016.

In December 2019, because he had participated in a private gathering in Xiamen, Fujian Province, attended by numerous dissidents from different parts of the country, which authorities later called the “Xiamen Gathering Case,” he was taken from a friend’s home by Shandong police on December 26 of that year. He was subsequently placed by Yantai police under residential surveillance at a designated location as the principal suspect in the “Xiamen Gathering Case.” On June 19, 2020, Linyi City’s Linshu County police formally arrested him on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” On August 5, 2021, the Linyi Municipal Procuratorate indicted him on the charge of subversion of state power and transferred the case to the Linyi Intermediate People’s Court for trial. It was learned that during his secret detention, he suffered brutal torture, including being deprived of sleep for 73 consecutive days, being forced to sit on the “tiger bench” for eight consecutive days (an extreme form of torture), enduring six months of abuse involving only noise and exposure to fluorescent lights 24 hours a day, being prevented from bathing and brushing his teeth for extended periods, and even being deprived of the right to eat. On April 10, 2023, the CCP authorities sentenced him to 12 years in prison and deprived him of political rights for three years, with his sentence running until March 21, 2032. He had previously been held at the Linshu County Detention Center in Shandong Province. He appealed, but his appeal was rejected on second instance and the original judgment was upheld. He has now been transferred to Jiangbei Prison in Hubei. Jiangbei Prison is located at No. 228 Jiangbei Avenue, Jiangling County, Jingzhou, Hubei Province, postal code 434110, telephone 0716-4781198. His rights in prison continue to be violated and deprived.

This outlet will continue to follow Ding Jiaxi’s situation in prison.