“Thoughts on Programming” Blogger Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison

Original link: https://www.williamlong.info/archives/7112.html

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According to Ms. Bei, the wife of “Programming Random” blogger Ruan Xiaohuan, her husband, Ruan Xiaohuan, was arrested a year and nine months ago. In February, he was convicted of inciting subversion of state power by the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court and sentenced to seven years in prison. Deprived of political rights for two years, confiscated 20,000 yuan of personal property.

However, the judgment of the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate Court did not mention the “Programming Caprice” blog, but the prosecution accused Ruan Xiaohuan of “writing more than a hundred seditious articles that spread rumors and defamation” between June 2009 and May 2021. “Publishing attacks on overseas platforms, smearing China’s current political system, inciting subversion of state power, and intending to overthrow the socialist establishment” political blogs have caused a large number of netizens to browse, comment, repost, and imitate “bad consequences.”

It is reported that Ruan Xiaohuan (June 10, 1977 -), a native of Quanzhou, Fujian, lives in Yangpu, Shanghai. He used to be the CTO of Guodu Xingye Information Audit System Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and served as the chief engineer of the information security system of the General Assembly during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. In June 2009, the blog of programming thoughts was opened. On May 9, 2021, the blog stopped updating, and he lost his online trace. On May 11, he was criminally detained, and was formally arrested on June 17. On February 10, 2023, Ruan Xiaohuan was convicted of inciting subversion of state power, sentenced to seven years in prison, deprived of political rights for two years, and confiscated 20,000 yuan of personal property. His wife, Ms. Bei, expressed her intention to appeal to the second instance.

The following is the text of the judgment:

Criminal Judgment of the Second Intermediate People’s Court of Shanghai

(2021) Shanghai 02 Xingchu No. 67

The Public Prosecution Organ Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate No. 2 Branch.

Defendant Ruan Xiaohuan, male, was born in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province on June 10, 1977. He is of Han nationality, graduated from a university, and is unemployed. He lives at No. 558, Minjing Road, Yangpu District, this city. Because of this case, he was criminally detained on May 11, 2021 and arrested on June 17 of the same year. He is currently detained at the Yangpu District Detention Center in Shanghai.

Defender Lu Peiyu, lawyer of Shanghai Rui Law Firm.

The Second Branch of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate charged the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan with the crime of inciting subversion of state power in the Shanghai Procuratorate Second Division No. 2 Criminal Prosecution [2021] No. Z18 Indictment, and filed a public prosecution with this court. This court formed a collegial panel in accordance with the law, and because state secrets were involved, the case was heard in closed court. The Second Branch of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate appointed prosecutor Xu Jing to appear in court to support the prosecution. Defendant Ruan Xiaohuan and his defenders attended the lawsuit. Trial is now over.

The Second Branch of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate accused:

From June 2009 to May 2021, defendant Ruan Xiaohuan used his own computer to write more than 100 rumors and slanderous inflammatory articles many times in his residence because of his long-term dissatisfaction with my country’s political system and social governance model. It involves attacking and discrediting my country’s current political system, inciting subversion of state power, and intending to overthrow the socialist system, and publishing it through overseas network platforms, causing a large number of netizens to browse, comment, forward, and imitate.

On May 10, 2021, the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan was captured by public security officers at his place of residence, and the computer he was logging into and using was seized on the spot. After Ruan Xiaohuan arrived at the case, he confessed to the above-mentioned criminal facts.

In order to prove the facts of the above allegations, the public prosecutor read out and presented relevant evidence including defendant Ruan Xiaohuan’s statement in court, and believed that the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan incited subversion of state power and the overthrow of the socialist system by means of spreading rumors, slander, and smearing, which was a serious crime. The behavior has violated the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 105 of the “Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China”, and should be investigated for criminal responsibility for the crime of inciting subversion of state power. After Ruan Xiaohuan truthfully confessed his crime, he can be given a lighter punishment and submitted to trial according to law.

Defendant Ruan Xiaohuan did not disagree with the basic facts and charges of the prosecution charges, but argued that the purpose of writing articles related to politics was to make the country a better place, and he published not more than a hundred articles of an inciting and subversive nature.

The defender did not disagree with the facts and charges of the prosecution’s charges. At the same time, he pointed out that the ideological understanding of the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan had changed before the case, and he was not as radical as before. The number of inciting and subversive articles involved needs to be further verified. Confess the facts of the crime, plead guilty and repent, and ask for a lighter punishment for Ruan Xiaohuan.

After the trial, it was found that the defendant, Ruan Xiaohuan, was dissatisfied with my country’s political system and social governance model. Since June 2009, he has used computers to write more than a hundred rumors and regimes, intending to overthrow the socialist system, and published them through overseas network platforms. Published, causing a large number of Internet users to browse, comment, forward and other bad consequences.

On May 10, 2021, the public security personnel arrested Ruan at Xiaohuan’s residence, and seized the computer that Ruan was logging into and using on the spot. After arriving at the case, Ruan Xiaohuan truthfully confessed the above-mentioned main criminal facts.

Evidence to prove the above facts are:

1. The “Case Filing Decision”, “Case Acceptance Registration Form”, “Arrest History” and “Arrest History” issued by the public security organs confirm the investigation of this case and the experience of the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan.

2. The “Search Warrant”, “Search Transcript”, “Seizure List”, “Seizure Transcript”, “On-Site Inspection Transcript” and related photos, and “On-Site Extraction Transcript of Electronic Data” produced by the public security organs confirm that the public security personnel searched the residence of the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan in accordance with the law. During the investigation and search, there was an Acer laptop computer on the desk in the second bedroom at the scene. Extraction, because the extraction time is long, so the method of not turning off the power is adopted, and the machine is moved to the public security organ to continue the extraction work. At the same time, the public security organs also seized and seized items such as Apple mobile phones, Xiaomi mobile phones, Huawei laptops, Toshiba mobile hard drives, USB flash drives, and keyboards.

3. The “Remote Inspection Transcript” produced by the public security organs confirmed that the public security personnel extracted hundreds of blog posts from the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan’s blog through remote inspections on the Internet, including more than 100 articles related to politics.

4. The “Appraisal Certificate” issued by the public security organ confirmed that after the appraisal, it cannot be ruled out that the biological substances in the cotton swabs of Acer’s laptop keyboard and external keyboard were left by the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan.

5. The “Judicial Appraisal Opinion” issued by Shanghai Honglian Electronic Data Judicial Appraisal Institute and the photocopies of political-related articles confirmed that more than ten virtual machines and hundreds of blog posts were detected from defendant Ruan Xiaohuan’s Acer laptop; The “.XML” format file was found in the computer.

6. The “Electronic Data Investigation Experiment Record” and the CD-ROM produced by the public security organs confirm that after logging in to the blog as a blogger, the “.XML” format blog post template file can be downloaded and generated through the “backup” function of the blog. All blog post content and blog configuration information published by blogs cannot be downloaded and generated by ordinary netizens browsing blogs as tourists to generate the above template files.

7. The testimony of witness Bei XX confirmed that the north room in the common residence of Bei and her husband Ruan Xiaohuan was Ruan’s study, and the study and the items in the room were used by Ruan herself.

8. Defendant Ruan Xiaohuan confessed to the fact that he used his personal blog to publish a large number of articles related to politics for a long time, inciting subversion of state power and overthrowing the socialist system. Ruan Xiaohuan also read over a hundred politically-related blog posts seized, and signed to confirm that they were written by him.

All the above evidences were cross-examined in court and confirmed by this court.

This court believes that the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan incited subversion of state power and the overthrow of the socialist system by means of spreading rumors and slander, and his actions constituted the crime of inciting subversion of state power. Ruan Xiaohuan committed crimes for a long time, published a large number of articles, and had a bad influence, which is a serious crime . The public prosecution agency charged him with the crime. In view of the fact that the defendant Ruan Xiaohuan truthfully confessed the facts of the crime after arriving at the case, he can be given a lighter punishment according to law. The defender’s request for a lighter punishment may be accepted. Pursuant to Article 105 Paragraph 2, Article 113 Paragraph 2, Article 67 Paragraph 3, Article 56 Paragraph 1, Article 55 of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China Article 1 and Article 64, the judgment is as follows:

1. Defendant Ruan Xiaohuan committed the crime of inciting subversion of state power and was sentenced to seven years in prison, deprivation of political rights for two years, and confiscation of RMB 20,000 in property.

(The term of the sentence shall be calculated from the day the judgment is executed. If the person is held in custody before the execution of the judgment, one day in custody shall be regarded as one day of the sentence, that is, from May 10, 2021 to May 9, 2028. )

2. The seized criminal tools, computers and other items shall be confiscated.

If you are not satisfied with this judgment, you may appeal through this court or directly to the Shanghai Higher People’s Court within ten days from the second day of receiving the judgment. For a written appeal, one original and one copy of the appeal letter shall be submitted.

Judge Dong Wei

Judge Sun Ye

Judge Wang Zheng

Clerk Xia Jing

February 10, 2023

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