Truth_hurts 1,785 Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Breaking the law: China rounds up its lawyers “If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers†Dickens wrote, envisaging the ‘bad people’ as the lawyer’s clients no doubt, rather than the government. Yet in China nearly 200 lawyers have been rounded up and hauled in for questioning over the last week in an unprecedented crackdown on the profession. Amnesty considers it could only have been carried out with the agreement of the highest levels of government. The people rounded up are mostly human rights lawyers often involved in high-profile cases against the state – in terms of working out who the bad people and the good lawyers are, the case seems clear. The purge has been accompanied by a smear campaign in state media, with lawyers and activists accused of being part of a criminal operation to “undermine social stabilityâ€. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s newspaper, has claimed that in order to build a society that uses the law to resolve problems, the police need to “strike hard against illegal lawyers according to the lawâ€. One firm in particular, the Beijing-based Fengrui Law Firm has been singled out as being at the centre of the “criminal gangâ€. The law firm had taken on a large number of high profile human rights cases over recent years including defending prominent Uighur academic Ilham Tohti who is currently serving a life prison sentence, and representing the victims of the 2008 tainted milk powder scandal. A thorn in the government’s side then, no doubt. One of the firm’s lawyers, Wang Yu, was arrested last Thursday marking the beginning of the crackdown. At 3am she sent a worried text to her friends stating that her internet and electricity has been cut off. Then at 4.17 she sent another message saying that people were trying to break in. When her friends tried to contact her later that morning, she was nowhere to be found. It’s the sort of chilling chronology of a crime you could imagine a Barrister reading out to a jury. Seven of her colleagues and her husband have since been arrested and her teenage son has also been harassed and his passport confiscated. In addition to the roundups the national broadcaster CCTV has aired videos showing the supposed ‘confessions’ of detained lawyers. All of this prompted UN human rights experts to warn yesterday that China’s persecution of lawyers might even have broken the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Some of those arrested are now being held on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state powerâ€, which could carry a massive prison sentence of up to 15 years. Another 31 of the lawyers and activists are still missing in detention - and many more of them could face a similar sentence. Clearly these lawyers need good lawyers. Brave ones too. The question is are there any left? Demand an end to China’s crackdown. http://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/press-release-me-let-me-go/breaking-law-china-rounds-its-lawyers?utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=20150717193200&utm_campaign=Freedom_of_expression CHINA: HUNDREDS OF HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYERS TARGETED Help us reach 10,000 In the last few days, nearly 200 lawyers and activists have been targeted and branded as a 'criminal gang' by the Chinese authorities. Demand an end to this nationwide crackdown on human rights - let the Chinese authorities in the UK know that the world is watching. Please help sign the petition https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/china-hundreds-human-rights-lawyers-arrested#.Val9KCsr8_w.twitter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sane 16,342 Posted July 17, 2015 Share Posted July 17, 2015 Pretty sure China is the only entity trying to destroy China's social stability at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truth_hurts 1,785 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 Pretty sure China is the only entity trying to destroy China's social stability at this point. Yep I totally agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boo! 111 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 You say this like you want us to do something about it. We can't do anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truth_hurts 1,785 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 You say this like you want us to do something about it. We can't do anything.Yes we can't really do anything.We can only help by signing the petition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boo! 111 Posted July 18, 2015 Share Posted July 18, 2015 Yes we can't really do anything. We can only help by signing the petition. But that's not gonna do anything, China's not democratic; petitions don't matter. It's hopeless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truth_hurts 1,785 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 But that's not gonna do anything, China's not democratic; petitions don't matter. It's hopeless. Well I'm just letting people on OH know about about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.