After waiting since last August for a restart to his stalled trial, Chinese activist, and one of Time Magazine’s Ten Heroes of 2009, Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years in prison.  Tan was compiling a report detailing the destruction that resulted from the Sichuan earthquake when he was arrested on the broad charge of “subversion” a tactic used by the Chinese government to put dissidents into prison for long periods of time.  After today’s pronouncement, Tan Zuoren’s lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang announced that the sentence Tan received was the maximum possible and they are planning to appeal the decision.  Fellow Sichuan earthquake activist and Twitter enthusiast Ai Weiwei said of the Tan Zuoren trial, “I think this is a very important case for China, more important than that of Liu Xiaobo.  It shows the Chinese legal system has taken a big step backwards. Tan's 'crime' was entirely one of speech, of conscience."

In further dissident news, Liu Xiaobo’s lawyer reports that the Beijing Courts are going to start his client’s second trial at 9am this Thursday, February 11 and his wife will be allowed to visit him.  While his lawyer remains hopeful that international pressure will have an effect on this second trial, Liu remains uncertain of what this second trial will bring.