Mainland activist Zhao Lianhai, who had reported on the death and serious sickness of children who had been fed drinking tainted milk, was sentenced to a two-and-a-half-year jail term. Zhao had been denied a fair and open trial. A Beijing court found him guilty of “inciting social order” this morning. The Democratic Party is angered by the verdict and sentence. DP declares that this is a brutal breach of the Universal Human Rights Declaration, the International Covenant for the Civil and Political Rights, of which China is a signatory, and the Chinese Constitution itself. DP strongly demands the immediate release of Zhao. Nobel Peace Laureate Liu’s Lawyer and Friends Prevented from Leaving China DP expresses grave concern that Mao Shaoping, lawyer of Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo, and He Weifang, Peking University law professor, were prevented by police from boarding a flight to London at Beijing’s international airport yesterday. The police said to them that they might pose a danger to national security. DP reiterates its position that Liu Xiaobo, who initiated the “Charter 08”, deserves the Nobel Peace award. There is no legal basis on which the Chinese Government can prohibit Liu’s friends as Chinese citizens from free traveling aboard. DP strongly demands the immediate release of Liu Xiaobo and of Liu Xia, Liu’s wife, from house arrest; the DP also demands an immediate stop to prosecution against supporters of the Nobel Peace Laureate.