Four people were convicted of subverting State power and were sentenced by a court in Tianjin in a series of trials last week.

Of the four, Hu Shigen, leader of an illegal church, got the longest prison term of 7.5 years. At 61, he was the oldest defendant and had engaged in anti-State activities since the 1990s.

Zhou Shifeng, a lawyer who formerly managed the Fengrui Law Firm in Beijing, was sentenced to seven years in prison.