Eighteen months after well-known labour activist Huang Qingnan was savagely attacked by knife wielding thugs outside his Shenzhen office, his assailants have finally been sentenced.

The Shenzhen Longgang District People’s Court on 18 May sentenced principal assailant Huang Zhizhong to five years imprisonment, while the mastermind behind the attack, local businessman and factory owner Zhong Weiqi, was sentenced to four years in jail. The other three attackers were sentenced to between one and two years imprisonment.

However, Huang’s civil lawsuit claim for 1.22 million yuan in physical and psychological injury compensation was rejected by the court. Huang was instead awarded 96,000 yuan in medical costs and loss of earnings compensation.

Huang expressed his disappointment with the verdict, especially the lesser sentence for Zhong Weiqi, and told Worker Empowerment, the Hong Kong based organization that has been supporting his case, that he might appeal the verdict to a higher court. Zhong Weiqi has never apologized to Huang Qingnan, and merely grunted an apology to the judge in court.

About 50 supporters turned up at the courthouse but only ten observers were allowed into the hearing and the media was barred from entering.

Huang Qingnan suffered serious injuries to his back and legs in the attack on 20 November 2007 outside the offices of the Dagongzhe Migrant Workers Centre in Longgang district. The attack was ordered by Zhong Weiqi because he felt that Dagongzhe’s work publicizing the Labour Contract Law would harm his business interests. He recruited former security officer Zhong Dongsheng to threaten and intimidate the workers at Donggongzhe on several occasions before launching an attack on Huang Qingnan. Zhong Dongsheng was sentenced to one year in prison.