A court in southwest China tried and sentenced a prominent dissident Friday to nine years in prison for inciting subversion.

Lawyers for Chen Wei said he was tried for four essays he wrote and published online that advocated democratic reform of communist-ruled China.

The attorneys said the trial in the southwestern city of Suining lasted less than three hours. After the sentence was handed down, Chen said he was not guilty and declared that dictatorship would fail and democracy would definitely prevail.

The 41-year-old dissident is one of several hundred activists who were detained in a crackdown after an online appeal in February for Chinese to emulate protesters in the Arab Spring uprisings.