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Two prominent Chinese activists have been jailed for subversion after more than three years in detention.

The wife of lawyer Ding Jiaxi tweeted that he was handed a 12-year jail term by a court in Shandong province.

She added that the other activist, legal scholar Xu Zhiyong, was jailed for 14 years. Their closed-door trial took place in one day in June 2022.

They were separately detained in 2019 and 2020 as part of a sprawling crackdown on legal activists.

A Human Rights Watch spokesman described their convictions as "cruelly farcical" and called for their sentences to be immediately quashed.

In 2010, Mr Ding and Mr Xu co-founded the New Citizens' Movement, which campaigns for civil rights and government transparency.

The pair were first arrested in 2013 for their roles in protests calling for equal social and educational benefits for migrant workers in Beijing.

They are among the most high-profile dissidents to fall afoul of Chinese authorities.

Sophie Luo, the wife of Ding Jiaxi, spoke to Newshour's Razia Iqbal about her husband's detention and treatment by the Chinese authorities.

(Photo shows Sophie Luo testifying during a hearing before The Congressional-Executive Commission on China. Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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