black Friday：human right crisis in china

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Beijing Rights Lawyer ‘Missing,’ Believed  Detained: Lawyer

2015-07-10  



Beijing-based lawyer Wang Yu in an undated photo.
Photo courtesy of Wang Yu's microblog



Prominent rights attorney Wang Yu is missing from her Beijing home, presumedly detained by China’s state security police, rights activists and lawyers said.

Wang, who has defended high profile activists, including jailed Uyghur dissident Ilham Tohti, Cao Shunli and Wu Gan, has been incommunicado since the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the Weiquanwang rights website.

The last communication from her was a social media post at around 3 a.m. which read: “I had just taken my husband and son to the airport … and when I got back home at 3 a.m. today the power was out, and the Wi-Fi was cut off,” the post said.

“I heard someone trying to force the door … but it was dark and I couldn’t see, but I could hear people muttering from time to time, but not clearly,” Wang wrote. “Now, calls to my husband and son’s cell phones are ringing unanswered. I really wonder what’s going on with them.”

Two hours later, Wang’s own phone was ringing unanswered, Weiquanwang said.

Repeated calls to her cell phone resulted in a message saying, “We are unable to connect calls to this number” throughout Thursday.

Fellow rights lawyer Cheng Hai said he had visited Wang’s apartment in Beijing on Thursday.

“I took a look in the morning because someone told me that people had forced the door in the early hours of the morning,” Cheng said. “The door hadn’t been forced, but Wang Yu herself was no longer there.”

Police were involved

Cheng also said the security guards at Wang’s apartment complex said the police were involved.

“[They said] that dozens of police surrounded the building where Wang Yu lives in the middle of the night, and detained one person, saying that it was a drug bust,” Cheng said.

An officer who answered the phone at the police office in Wang’s compound said nobody of that name was there.

“We just came on duty today, so we don’t know anything about this matter you mention,” the officer said. “At least I can tell you that there’s nobody by the name of Wang Yu here in this police station. If this person hasn’t come home for a certain period of time, then the relatives or family can come here and file a missing persons report.”

Wang’s apparent detention comes after a number of negative comments about her in China’s tightly controlled state media.

Beijing rights attorney Chen Jianggang told RFA on Thursday that Wang is “an outstanding example” of a human rights lawyer.

“Everyone knows that they have detained Wang Yu because she is an outstanding example of … a human rights lawyer in China,” Chen said.

“They are throwing the entire state power apparatus at a single lawyer.”

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

A drug bust lol all governments use drugs as cover ups.

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Beijing Rights Lawyer ‘Missing,’ Believed  Detained: Lawyer

2015-07-10  



Beijing-based lawyer Wang Yu in an undated photo.
Photo courtesy of Wang Yu's microblog



Prominent rights attorney Wang Yu is missing from her Beijing home, presumedly detained by China’s state security police, rights activists and lawyers said.

Wang, who has defended high profile activists, including jailed Uyghur dissident Ilham Tohti, Cao Shunli and Wu Gan, has been incommunicado since the early hours of Thursday morning, according to the Weiquanwang rights website.

The last communication from her was a social media post at around 3 a.m. which read: “I had just taken my husband and son to the airport … and when I got back home at 3 a.m. today the power was out, and the Wi-Fi was cut off,” the post said.

“I heard someone trying to force the door … but it was dark and I couldn’t see, but I could hear people muttering from time to time, but not clearly,” Wang wrote. “Now, calls to my husband and son’s cell phones are ringing unanswered. I really wonder what’s going on with them.”

Two hours later, Wang’s own phone was ringing unanswered, Weiquanwang said.

Repeated calls to her cell phone resulted in a message saying, “We are unable to connect calls to this number” throughout Thursday.

Fellow rights lawyer Cheng Hai said he had visited Wang’s apartment in Beijing on Thursday.

“I took a look in the morning because someone told me that people had forced the door in the early hours of the morning,” Cheng said. “The door hadn’t been forced, but Wang Yu herself was no longer there.”

Police were involved

Cheng also said the security guards at Wang’s apartment complex said the police were involved.

“[They said] that dozens of police surrounded the building where Wang Yu lives in the middle of the night, and detained one person, saying that it was a drug bust,” Cheng said.

An officer who answered the phone at the police office in Wang’s compound said nobody of that name was there.

“We just came on duty today, so we don’t know anything about this matter you mention,” the officer said. “At least I can tell you that there’s nobody by the name of Wang Yu here in this police station. If this person hasn’t come home for a certain period of time, then the relatives or family can come here and file a missing persons report.”

Wang’s apparent detention comes after a number of negative comments about her in China’s tightly controlled state media.

Beijing rights attorney Chen Jianggang told RFA on Thursday that Wang is “an outstanding example” of a human rights lawyer.

“Everyone knows that they have detained Wang Yu because she is an outstanding example of … a human rights lawyer in China,” Chen said.

“They are throwing the entire state power apparatus at a single lawyer.”

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

A drug bust lol all governments use drugs as cover ups.

much more here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1118518.0

 i know you can translate it into english

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[Okurkabinladin]

I love how western based trolls, didnt even start to answer objections about source of finance for these "activists". Instead they keep patting each other on the shoulder for sharing "scandal" of authorities investigating some shadow organization on their home soil.

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update： total159 today 

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陈泰和律师（教授）被秘密拘押，这是他和吴凎合影。Lawyer prof. Chen Taihe detained in secret location, picture with Wugan      #china #HumanRights

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Lawyer's Teen Son Missing in Widening Crackdown on China's Rights Attorneys
2015-07-17


Police in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin have taken the 16-year-old son of detained rights attorney Wang Yu from his home amid an ongoing crackdown on the country's embattled legal profession, lawyers told RFA on Friday.

Wang's detention on July 9 came amid a raid on her law firm, Fengrui, and kicked off a nationwide police operation that has targeted more than 200 public interest and human rights attorneys.

At least 222 lawyers, law firm employees and rights activists had been detained, summoned for questioning, or were incommunicado or held under house arrest by Friday, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website.

Wang's son Bao Mengmeng was taken away by police shortly after apparently texting lawyers who were en route to offer him legal assistance that they shouldn't come, Beijing lawyer Chen Jianggang told RFA.

"They took Bao Mengmeng away as soon as they knew the lawyers were on their way," Chen said, adding that he had received a text message from the teenager's phone.

"We received a text message of just a few words saying thank you, but please don't come here," he said. "I think the phone was shut down as soon as he sent it."

Chen said it was unclear whether Bao himself had sent the message.

"We have no way of knowing whether the phone was even in his hands," he said.

Chen said he too is expecting a visiting from China's state security police "at any time."

"I'm not sure I will be able to remain in contact, even if I wanted to," he said. "I don't know when I'll be detained too."

Lawyer Feng Yanqiang, who had been on his way to assist Bao, said the authorities have refused to answer any questions regarding the whereabouts of Wang and the others.

"What is going on with Wang Yu, and which department has detained her, and on suspicion of which crimes," Feng said.

"We don't even know where she is being held, and there's no way for us to find out right now," he said.

"We went to the Tianjin police department and district detention centers, to district police stations and to the courts, to inquire, but we haven't heard any news," Feng added.



'Grim' outlook for rule of law

Feng said he has been asked to resign from his own law firm because he is trying to help Wang, who has been accused by state media of taking part in a "criminal operation" spearheaded by Fengrui and allegedly aimed at undermining social stability.

State media reports have accused the lawyers of "colluding with petitioners to disturb social order and to reach their goals with ulterior motives."

Many lawyers have told RFA they have been summoned for questioning by police and warned not to publicize details of 'sensitive' rights cases online, nor to speak to foreign media organizations.

While many were later released, dozens of lawyers remain in detention, including Wang, her boss Zhou Shifeng, and colleague Huang Liqun from Beijing's Fengrui public interest law firm, which defended jailed Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti.

Meanwhile, China's powerful propaganda department moved this week to curb coverage of the detentions in the country's tightly controlled media.

"All websites must, without exception, use as the standard official and authoritative media reports with regards to the detention of trouble-making lawyers by the relevant departments," according to a directive dated July 14 and leaked online.

"Personnel must take care to find and delete harmful information; do not repost news from non-standard sources," said the directive, which was translated and published by the U.S.-based China Digital Times website.

Rights groups and overseas agencies have continued to call on Beijing to disclose the whereabouts of nine detained lawyers, saying they are at "grave risk" of torture or other mistreatment, and two non-lawyers who went missing during the operation.

Among those "disappeared," and believed detained, are Beijing lawyers Li Heping, Xie Yanyi, Li Shuyun and Liu Yingxin, as well as seven other activists and paralegals.

U.N. human rights investigators demanded an end to crackdown, saying it may have broken the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. Basic Principles of the Role of Lawyers and China's own criminal procedures.

"Lawyers should never have to suffer prosecution or any other kind of sanctions or intimidation for discharging their professional duties," they said in a statement issued by the U.N. human rights office.

In Hong Kong, the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) said it was "gravely concerned" at the crackdown.

"Freedom of speech and of the press can only be guaranteed when there is the clear and unfettered rule of law," the FCC said in a statement on its website on Friday.

"By attacking lawyers who are dedicated to defending civil liberties, the Chinese authorities are clearly undermining the rule of law and sending a very chilling message to both journalists and lawyers working in China," it said.

The overseas-based Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders said that the future of rule of law in China now looks "grim."

"Our organizations call on the Chinese authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of the detainees, ensure their right to access to a lawyer and respect their rights including those stipulated in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers," the group said in a statement on its website.

According to Australian China expert Geremie Barmé, two influential articles in state-run media in 2012 specifically mentioned rights lawyers as a potential threat to the incoming administration of President Xi Jinping.

One, penned by Yuan Peng in Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily in September 2012, identified five categories of people that could pose a threat to the regime because they were being infiltrated and manipulated by the United States.

The categories comprise rights lawyers, underground religious believers, dissidents, Internet opinion leaders and vulnerable groups who petition against official wrongdoing, Barmé wrote on The China Story website in 2012.

Reported by Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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维权律师陈建刚，张俊杰，付永刚，庞琨，赵永林等声援王宇律师。
"Embrace freedom",rights Lawyers in solidarity with Wang Yu. #china #freethelawyers

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Taiwan protest supporting mainland China rights lawyers

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Activist in Bid to Find Whereabouts of Detained Chinese Rights Lawyer Wang Yu
2015-07-27


A Chinese lawyer has filed a formal information request to police in the northern city of Tianjin in a bid to find out the whereabouts of his lawyer, detained rights attorney Wang Yu, who has been held at an unknown location since the start of a nationwide crackdown on the legal profession.

Yu Wensheng filed the freedom of information request online on Saturday, calling on Tianjin police to reveal her location, and what crimes she is suspected of committing.

“Nobody knows what has happened to Wang Yu, and we only know that she was criminally detained through the media,” Yu told RFA. “Even her relatives and her defense attorneys don’t know.”

“Wang Yu was also my defense attorney, and because I am currently out on bail, from a legal perspective, I have an interest in her case, and I also believe I have a duty to understand her whereabouts and the nature of the charges against her,” he said.

“That’s why I filed the freedom of information request with the police.”

Since Wang’s detention amid a night-time raid on the Beijing-based Fengrui law firm on July 10, at least 255 lawyers, paralegals and legal support staff have been detained or questioned by Chinese police, the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said in a statement on its website.



Lawyers in undisclosed locations

Of those, 230 have since been released, but 12 lawyers and three non-lawyers are still being held in undisclosed locations, including Wang Yu, her husband Bao Longjun, and Fengrui colleagues Wang Quanzhang, Huang Liqun and Zhou Shifeng, it said.

China’s tightly controlled state media has accused the Fengrui lawyers of “troublemaking” and seeking to incite mass incidents by publicizing cases where they defend some of the most vulnerable groups in society.

According to Yu, the lack of information about Wang’s whereabouts contravenes China’s Criminal Procedure Law. “Such a large-scale detention of lawyers is also in breach of legal procedural regulations,” he said.

“I think they are trying to create a climate of fear for lawyers, so that some of them won’t dare to speak out, or may not take on human rights cases,” Yu said. “But I don’t think they will succeed in their aim.”

“Maybe some rights lawyers will be silenced, but even more will rise up in opposition, and still more will want to enter the profession of human rights lawyers,” he said.

Rights lawyer Chen Jiangang said that information on the whereabouts of detainees should be given to relatives and lawyers as a matter of course.

“Nobody should have to apply for it,” Chen said. “The police should formally notify the families within a time period specified by law, but China’s police don’t abide by the law at all nowadays.”

“Every step they take is against the law now.”



Fearless 'warrior' Wang

An officer who answered the phone at the Tianjin police department declined to comment on the case.

“For freedom of information requests, you need to contact the complaints department, or you can call them and try,” the officer said. “I don’t really know about this.”

The overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) group said Wang Yu is described by those who know her as a courageous and fearless “warrior.”

“She has raced to the front lines of rights defense work in China to provide legal aid to those in need, regardless of how difficult or politically sensitive a case is,” it said in a statement on its website.

Wang has represented activists, scholars, members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group, farmers who lost their land, forced evictees and petitioners seeking to protect their rights, those of women and children, and the right to freedom of religion, housing and of expression, CHRD said.

“Wang Yu has frequently been harassed, threatened, searched, and physically assaulted by police since she began to take on rights abuse cases in 2011,” it said

Meanwhile, authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong detained rights activist Jia Pin after he tried to attend the subversion trial of the Guangzhou Three rights activists last week.

“Jia Pin turned out in support at the trial of Tang Jingling, and he was taken away by police at the gates to the court along with a lot of other people … from across the country,” a friend of Jia’s who asked to remain anonymous told RFA. “They are all safe and we have heard from all of them now, except for Jia Pin.”

“He was taken onto a train by six state security police officers, for escort back to his hometown, and we were able to talk with him by phone while he was on the train, but after he got off the train, they moved him to a state security police building in Nanyang, Henan province,” the friend said.

“There has been no word from him since, and we are all very worried; Jia Pin has done a lot of rights activism and the state security police from Nanyang have never come looking for him before, so we think things could go very badly for him this time,” the friend said.

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA’s Mandarin Service, and by Ka Pa and Dai Weisen for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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lawyer Li chunfu, the brother of lawyer Li Heping , was detained by police in Beijing this evening on Saturday.

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contend for freedom

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Chinese Rights Lawyer Wang Yu Held For ‘Subversion' As Crackdown Continues
2015-08-07


Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin are holding a top rights lawyer under "residential surveillance" on suspicion of subversion, denying her visits from her defense attorney amid an ongoing crackdown on the legal profession, rights groups and lawyers said on Friday.

Wang Yu's lawyer Li Yuhan received an official notification from police dated Thursday, the Chinese rights website Weiquanwang tweeted on Friday.

"Wang Yu is suspected of incitement to subvert state power, which is a case in the category of crimes related to state security," the Hexi branch of Tianjin's municipal police department said in a notification to Li, a copy of which was attached to the tweet.

"A meeting could obstruct the investigation, or reveal state secrets, and so we have decided not to permit the application for a meeting with Wang Yu," it said.

Incitement to subvert state power carries a maximum jail term of five years in less serious cases, and a minimum jail term of five years in cases deemed more serious, or where the suspect is regarded as a "ringleader."

Wang had previously been believed detained on the lesser public order charge of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble."

The news emerged as the ruling Chinese Communist Party continued its nationwide operation to detain, question and restrict the activities of the country's embattled legal profession.

Beijing-based rights attorney Yu Wensheng, a vocal supporter of Wang Yu, was taken away by Beijing police on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" in the early hours of Thursday morning, his wife Xu Yan told RFA.

"They told me that he is being held on a criminal summons, and it boils down to either an administrative sentence or criminal detention," Xu said.

Administrative sentences can be given to perceived troublemakers by police without the need for a trial.



‘Right to sue the authorities’

Xu said Yu's public support for Wang Yu was listed as one of the reasons for his detention.

"They mentioned his support of Wang Yu, and his online support for the lawyers detained on July 10, and also the fact that he has lodged official complaints against the police on many occasions," she said.

"[But] Yu Wensheng says that citizens have the right to sue the authorities, enshrined in the Constitution," Xu said. "Everything Yu did was within the limits in the law; he was law abiding."

Xu said police had treated her and her husband rudely during the raid on their home, and hadn't produced any form of official documentation while searching him in front of the couple's child.

"They broke down our doors, both the external metal one and the inner, wooden one, and pinned Yu to the floor in an instant, before putting handcuffs on him and dragging him away," she said.

"More than a dozen of them pushed me aside and shoved their way into the room, and started searching it," Xu said. "They took away a computer, cables, an external hard drive and CD-ROMs."

"Our kid was so scared, he still couldn't sleep at 2 a.m.," she added.



Form of retaliation

Guangzhou-based rights lawyer Chen Keyun said Yu's detention is a form of retaliation for his official complaint against the police.

"This is definitely an illegal act, and it looks like an act of retaliation over Yu's suing of the police," Chen said.

Yu had previously told RFA he had made mental preparation to be detained at any time.

In Beijing, the wife of detained rights lawyer Li Heping was also called in for questioning by police on Thursday.

"The crackdown on rights lawyers isn't over; it's still going on,"
Chen told RFA. "According to the information we have received, it is likely to continue until October."

He said the authorities regard rights lawyers as a threat to political stability, owing to their willingness to stand up for the most vulnerable groups inside China, and to communicate with media and organizations overseas.

In recent weeks, police have detained or interrogated at least 267 lawyers, law firm staff, and associated human right activists.

More than 20 people remain in detention, 16 of them at undisclosed locations, while many more have been placed under surveillance, police warning or house arrest, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website on Friday.

Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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I don't read or speak any squiggly languages well but I copied your signature

杀了天下所有公鸡，黎明还是会到来！maybe you can kill all roosters in the world but you can not stop sunrise.

THANK YOU ！！