40 Chinese Protest Leaders Reportedly Will Stand Trial

BEIJING —  More than 40 leaders of last spring’s democracy movement now detained at a maximum-security prison outside Beijing are to be tried for counterrevolutionary crimes, the most serious political charges in China, Chinese sources said Wednesday.

According to the sources, those to stand trial include student leader Wang Dan, former top government policy adviser Cao Siyuan and veteran human rights activist Ren Wanding.

The group of more than 40 intellectuals, student leaders and veteran activists played leading roles in pro-democracy protests that spread nationwide in April and May.

Sources said they will be charged under a broadly defined constitutional clause that lists as counterrevolutionary any “act against the state, that seeks to undermine the leadership of the Communist Party and overthrow the dictatorship of the proletariat.”

The statute, which normally carries a sentence of more than 10 years in prison or labor camps, has been invoked in the past to silence dissidents. But at its worst, a charge of counterrevolution can be tantamount to treason and warrant the death penalty.