By Laurie Chen
BEIJING, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen, known for making satirical sculptures of former leader Mao Zedong, was handed the maximum three-year sentence for “defaming national heroes and martyrs” by a Chinese court on Tuesday, his wife and a rights group said.
New York-based Gao, 70, was detained in August 2024 during a visit to China from the U.S. and was tried earlier this year in a one-day closed-door trial.
“We feel outraged,” Gao’s wife Zhao Yaliang told Reuters about Tuesday’s sentencing, which took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei province neighbouring the capital.
“Ever since I learned of the verdict, I haven’t been able to recover from it … It’s devastating,” she said, adding that Gao plans to appeal.
Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group, which operates outside the country, called for his release.
“The court has now sentenced him to three years … for artwork he made as far back as 2005, some 16 years before the law he was charged under even existed,” Yi said. “The only outcome that respects Gao Zhen’s rights is his immediate, unconditional release.”
The court did not answer a call requesting comment outside business hours.
With his brother Gao Qiang, Gao produced several sculptures of Mao that critiqued the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, a period of social turmoil and widespread political persecution in China that led to millions of deaths.
Their most famous works include “Miss Mao”, featuring Mao with unsettling features like Pinocchio noses and breasts, and “Mao’s Guilt”, a bronze statue of the leader kneeling remorsefully.
Gao was charged under China’s “Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs”, which went into effect in 2018 and was strengthened in 2021, for artworks made between 2005 and 2009, Yi had previously told Reuters.
The law has previously been used to prosecute individuals accused of insulting members of the military who died in the line of duty, as well as historical figures.
“By applying a law retroactively and holding a closed-door trial that shut out even his own family, Chinese authorities have shown exactly how little due process they’re willing to give,” Yi said on Tuesday.
Multiple Western diplomats were barred entry to the trial, according to Zhao, who learned of the verdict through Gao’s lawyer and who said she and her son, a U.S. citizen, had been blocked from leaving China since his detention two years ago.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Gao’s sentencing and the exit bans on his family.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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