Lawyers for disabled China activist appeal conviction

Lawyers for disabled Chinese rights defender Ni Yulan on Friday went to court to challenge convictions for fraud and "picking quarrels", for which she is serving a 32-month jail sentence. Ni, 52, has been confined to a wheelchair since an earlier stint in jail. She was found guilty this year of fraud and "picking quarrels" -- charges her lawyers and supporters say were trumped up to silence her. The activist, whose husband Dong Jiqin was also convicted on the latter charge, spent much of the trial lying on a bed in the courtroom due to her poor health and needed a respirator to breathe. There was a heavy police presence outside the court in Beijing as the hearing got under way Friday. It was not immediately clear whether the couple or their daughter Dong Xuan, who was placed under effective house arrest after the original hearing earlier this year, were able to attend. The couple's lawyer Cheng Hai told AFP before the appeal hearing that he had witness statements from the alleged fraud victims to support the legal challenge. "They have not only provided written testimonies that they donated the funds voluntarily and were not defrauded (but also) video recordings," Cheng said. Trained as a lawyer, Ni began providing legal aid to residents facing home demolitions after her own courtyard home in central Beijing was requisitioned in 2001. The next year she was sentenced to one year in jail for "obstructing official business" and disbarred as a lawyer. After her release she was confined to a wheelchair, which the rights group Amnesty International blamed on abuse while in prison. In 2008, Ni and her husband began living on the street after their home was demolished, and Ni received another jail sentence of two years for "harming public property". After a brief period of freedom in 2010, police relocated her and her husband to a hotel and later requested them to pay the 69,000 yuan ($11,000) bill, which they refused to do. In April last year she and her husband were detained again as part of a roundup of activists amid calls for protests akin to the Arab Spring popular revolts that erupted across the Middle East. Her sentencing in April this year sparked an international outcry, and the United States and European Union have both called for her release.