On the morning of Aug. 2, the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Procuratorate carried out a public trial, charging Zhai Yanmin with subversion of the state. Zhai was found guilty and sentenced to three years' imprisonment with a four-year probation period, and was deprived of political rights for four years.

Twenty journalists from 12 domestic media outlets and five foreign media outlets, along with 28 representatives, attended the trial. Among the representatives were National People’s Congress deputies, CPPCC members, scholars and lawyers.

Zhai, 55, was accused of illegally organizing paid protests, exacerbating public unrest and fabricating rumors on the Internet to sway court decisions. Prosecutors hold that Zhai has been influenced by anti-China forces for many years, and that those forces gradually gave him the idea to subvert the state. Zhai has posted anti-China remarks online many times since 2012. More recently, he participated in a plot to subvert the state, complete with specific methods and procedures.

At the trial, Zhai admitted, “I was in charge of buiding the protest--getting the public worked up and inviting passersby to join. With more people on the street, conflicts between citizens and law enforcement were exacerbated. Our ultimate goal was to get international outsiders to intervene, overthrow the leadership of the CCP and carry out revolution in China.”

The group was arrested in July 2015. According to a statement from the Ministry of Public Security, published on July 11, 2015, the suspects consisted of lawyers, who had been the core organizers, and social media celebrities, who were in charge of implementation. The statement accused the group, led by Fengrui Law Firm, of disrupting public order and seeking profits by illegally hiring protesters and swaying court decisions in the name of "defending justice and public interests."

Since July 2012, the group has organized more than 40 controversial incidents and severely disrupted public order, the statement added.