- Title: CHINA-RIGHTS/LAWYERS China targets lawyers in sweeping new crackdown
- Date: 14th July 2015
- Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (FILE - OCTOBER, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF UIGHUR SCHOLAR IIHAM TOHTI READING NEWSPAPER AT HOME NEWSPAPER
- Embargoed: 29th July 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA7TY5K2GX45VTSV2C0G88MNCC1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
Chinese authorities have widened a crackdown on human rights groups, detaining or questioning more than 100 lawyers and activists in a nationwide sweep over the past few days, rights groups say.
Those who have been taken away include the prominent lawyer Wang Yu and several colleagues at the Fengrui Law Firm, which has represented high-profile clients such as Uighur dissident Ilham Tohti and Cao Shunli, an activist who died in detention after being denied medical treatment.
Other well-known lawyers taken away in recent days include Li Heping, who represented the blind dissident Chen Guangcheng, Liu Xiaoyuan, who has defended dissident artist Ai Weiwei, and Li Fangping, who also defended Tohti. Li Fangping was detained briefly, but released, sources close to him told Reuters.
Police said Fengrui Law Firm, the firm that Wang Yu works for, is a "major criminal organisation" that served as a coordinating "platform" involved in dozens of sensitive cases since 2012, the People's Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said on Saturday (July 11).
The rights group Amnesty International said 101 lawyers and activists, including Wang, were targeted by police in a nationwide sweep.
Nine of Wang's colleagues had been detained according to Amnesty International.
"So, we had an idea that this, some sort of attack on lawyers and activists might be happening. But nothing could prepare us for the large-scale scope of this attack where there's over 100 lawyers and activists who have been affected around the country. And according to Amnesty International's current counting there's at least 25 who are still in police custody or who are missing at this point," said Hong Kong-based Amnesty International China researcher, William Nee.
"They (the Chinese government) are very concerned that these human rights lawyers are taking on sensitive cases and then using social media and street protests, peaceful protests, as advocacy tools in their cases. And they're having an enormous impact and really having an impact on society. And to some extent the government is very fearful these lawyers' powers are increasing and that they are advocating for things that the government doesn't like," Nee added.
More than 100 Chinese lawyers issued a joint statement on Friday (July 10) to protest Wang's arrest. Many of them have since been detained, rights groups said.
Experts say the backdrop to the crackdown is a growing number of rights lawyers posing a challenge to the ruling Communist Party.
Last month, a U.S. State Department report on human rights said repression and coercion in China were routine against activists, ethnic minorities and law firms that took on sensitive cases.
The Ministry of Public Security did not respond to a faxed request for comment. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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