BEIJING – A Chinese human rights activist was on Friday given a three year suspended prison sentence for subversion, a court said, in the fourth such case this week as authorities crack down on dissent.

Christian activist Gou Hongguo had gone abroad to be trained in “subverting state power”, the Second Intermediate People’s Court in the northern city of Tianjin said on a verified social media account.

He sought to turn public opinion against the government and attempted to overthrow the socialist system, among a litany of other offences, it said.

Gou was given three years in prison, suspended for three years, the court statement said, adding he pleaded guilty and said he would not appeal.

The term is relatively light by the standards of dissident trials in China, where the courts are controlled by the ruling Communist Party.

But it was not clear whether he would be released. Another of the defendants tried this week, Zhai Yanmin, was also given a suspended sentence, but campaign groups said he had yet to return home and his whereabouts remained unknown.

Gou’s wife Fan Lili, who gave birth to their son 16 months ago, told AFP: “I’m happy as long as he can come home, and my child can have a father to raise him.” Gou, who had protested against forced evictions, was one of more than 200 activists and lawyers involved in cases the party considers sensitive who were detained in July last year in the so-called 709 crackdown – named for its main date.

“The hardest thing was not knowing where my husband was and whether he was living or dead,” said Fan.

She was not allowed to attend the trial, having gone to the courthouse earlier this week to demand information about his fate, only to be bundled away by security personnel and returned to her home province of Shanxi.

“I am very strictly monitored, and cannot accept interviews or meet with other family members,” she said. “Otherwise there will be a lot of trouble.” Gou’s trial was the fourth at the Tianjin court this week, and followed that of high-profile rights lawyer Zhou Shifeng, whose Fengrui law firm – known for taking on cases of dissident scholars, victims of sexual abuse and members of banned religious groups – has been at the centre of the 709 crackdown.

Zhou was on Thursday given seven years in prison for subversion.

Hu Shigen, a Christian campaigner who was a member of the same underground church as Gou, was jailed for seven and a half years on Wednesday.

That came a day after activist Zhai’s three-year suspended sentence.

“Just because people are released doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be completely free in China, where they can for example be released to a detention centre,” Kit Chen, executive director of the China Human Rights Lawyer Concern Group, told AFP.

She cited the example of legal assistant Zhao Wei, detained in the 709 crackdown and released on bail last month according to police, but whose family have been unable to contact her.

“All the trials were pre-arranged showcase trials,” Chen said of the Tianjin proceedings, adding that each one had taken a matter of hours from opening to verdict and sentence.

The court cited Gou as saying that he had “continuously reflected deeply upon my own crimes, and now believe that I was misled by so-called ‘democratic’ thinking from the West”, adding he had been “used by foreign forces and people with ulterior motives”.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted him saying: “I’m grateful to the government for saving me.” Only court-appointed defence lawyers were present.

Authorities insist the trials are open, with the court stating that about 40 people including politicians, legal scholars, and “civilian representatives from all walks of life”, as well as mainland and foreign media outlets, were present.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the charges were “vague and apparently politically motivated” and called on officials to release the remaining “709” detainees “and remove restrictions on their freedom of movement and professional activities”.

MANILA – A Bangladesh central bank team visiting Manila to recover US$81 million (S$108.59 million) stolen from its account in New York said it was close to getting back US$15 million of the loot frozen by the Philippines, but first has to prove ownership of the cash to its hosts.

Cyber criminals tried to steal nearly US$1 billion from Bangladesh Bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in February, and succeeded in transferring US$81 million to four accounts at Manila’s Rizal Commercial Banking Corp , which was then laundered through the city’s casinos, according to investigators.

Only about US$18 million, including US$2.7 million frozen by the Philippines’ casino regulator, has been accounted for.

The Philippines’ Department of Justice (DoJ) has asked the Bangladesh Bank delegation to file a legal document staking its claim to US$15 million of that, but the casino money will have to be pursued separately, said two sources close to the visiting team.

“We are in the final stages of recovering the US$15 million, but for the rest we hope a (Philippines) senate hearing on the issue resumes so that we can get to know more details about the case,” said John Gomes, Bangladesh’s ambassador to the Philippines, who is helping the bank representatives on a four-day visit to Manila ending Friday.

The last Philippines Senate hearing into the heist ended in May as a new government came to power under President Rodrigo Duterte. No date has been announced for a resumption.

Bangladeshi officials say the money was able to disappear into the casino industry because of systemic failures at RCBC, not just individual error by some of its officers.

The Philippine central bank said on Friday it would fine RCBC 1 billion pesos (US$21 million) in relation to failings over the heist, the largest amount it has ever approved “as part of its supervisory enforcement actions”.

In March RCBC’s then president Lorenzo Tan told a Senate hearing that there was “some judgment error from the people on the ground”.

It said earlier on Friday that the transfers were made based on authenticated instructions over payments network SWIFT, and the hackers had used stolen Bangladesh Bank credentials.

The Bangladeshi delegation consists of Debaprosad Debnath and Abdul Rab from Bangladesh Bank’s financial intelligence unit, and Bangladesh Bank lawyer Ajmalul Hossain. They have already met the DoJ and officials from the anti-money-laundering council in Manila, and will be seeing central bank officials on Friday.

The team has prepared an affidavit citing a letter by the New York Fed to the Philippines’ central bank, in which the Fed said the money was stolen from Bangladesh Bank’s account. The affidavit will be given to the DoJ to file with a court, the sources said.

Gomes told Reuters late on Thursday he hoped the US$15 million would be returned in a month. He will hold a press conference on the issue later on Friday.

PROVE IT Ricardo J. Paras III, chief state counsel of the DoJ, told Reuters that it has already drafted court documents to begin recovery of the US$15 million, but it was important for Bangladesh to prove it is their money.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), a government body that regulates casinos in the country, has promised to co-operate with Bangladesh Bank to help it recover the US$2.7 million it has frozen, Gomes said.

“The money is with Solaire (Resort and Casino),” PAGCOR President Alfredo Lim told Reuters. “It will put us in a bad light if the money is not immediately released to them.” Solaire, operated by Bloomberry Resorts Corp, has said about US$29 million of the funds came to the casino and most was transferred to the accounts of two junket operators.

Solaire did not immediately return requests for comment.

The Bangladeshi sources said they were writing to President Duterte, whom Gomes has already met, formally seeking his help to recover all of the stolen money.

Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella said Bangladesh Bank should reach out to the president soon.

The sources said Bangladesh Bank would take RCBC to court if these efforts fail to bear fruit.

It is relying on internal RCBC documents to buttress its assertion that the bank’s Jupiter Street branch in Manila ignored suspicions raised by some RCBC officials when the money was first remitted to the accounts on Feb. 5, and then delayed acting on requests from RCBC’s head office to freeze the funds on Feb. 9.

“Going to court instead of the media and various Philippine government agencies is the proper procedure,” RCBC said in a statement.

“Bangladesh should finish its own investigation to determine who the culprits were before concluding the theft was an outside job, without fault on their part.”

TOKYO – Japan’s Emperor Akihito will address the nation on Monday, the Imperial Household Agency said on Friday, following a report last month that he wants to abdicate “in a few years.” The 82-year-old monarch, who has had heart surgery and been treated for prostate cancer in recent years, expressed his intention to abdicate in a few years to the agency, public broadcaster NHK said last month.

The video address will be aired at 3 p.m. (0600 GMT), the agency said.

Ordinary Japanese sympathise with Akihito’s apparent desire to hand over to Crown Prince Naruhito, but such a step would be unprecedented in modern Japan and the idea faces stiff opposition from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative base.

Akihito has been cutting back on official duties recently, his place taken by his heir, 56-year-old Naruhito.

Emperor Akihito celebrates 82nd birthday with peace message

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Reuters, AFP

Conservatives have already raised objections to changing the law to let Akihito step down, citing problems ranging from his title and possible strife with a new emperor, to worry that the next step would be a break in tradition by letting women succeed and pass on the throne.

Naruhito has only one daughter, so since only males can inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne, the throne after Naruhito would pass to his brother, Prince Akishino, and then to nine-year-old nephew Hisahito.

Before Hisahito’s birth, no male had been born into the imperial family for more than four decades. This prompted discussion of equal inheritance for women, a move opposed by traditionalists eager to preserve a male line they believe goes back more than 2,000 years.