Calls Grow For Probe Into Beating of Chinese Lawyer in a Beijing Court

2015-04-16

 

A postcard wishing Pu Zhiqiang a Happy New Year.

Photo courtesy of the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group

 

 

Hundreds of lawyers and rights activists are calling for an independent investigation into the alleged beating of Beijing-based lawyer Cui Hui by court officials in the Chinese capital.

 

Cui, 51, says she was attacked by judges and bailiffs at the Tongzhou District People’s Court on the outskirts of Beijing on April 2 after she went to enquire after a case that should have been resolved two years earlier.

 

“I represented and won a civil commercial case two years ago in which 3.3 million yuan (U.S. $532.6) was confiscated [by the court],” Cui said.

 

“Two years had gone by, and there had still been no movement from the Tongzhou District People’s Court to implement the release of the money,” she said.

 

Cui, who works for the Beijing Hengqing law firm, said she had already issued the relevant applications via the Tongzhou district state prosecution service, but they failed to respond.

 

“So I went to follow it up with the court, but I was attacked,” she said.

 

According to Cui’s account, relayed in a statement by the oveseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), judges Yang Yu and Lai Xiulin assaulted Cui at the Tongzhou District People’s Court after she went to file a complaint with the procuratorate about the court’s unresponsiveness.

 

“Lai Xiulin punched her in the face, and when she fled downstairs, she encountered Yang Yu, who refused to help her and instead told two court bailiffs, whom she could not identify, to beat her,” the group said in an e-mailed statement.

 

“The beating only ended when a female judge in the courthouse assisted Cui and promised to alert the head of the court.”

 

Cui was later treated at Beijing Tongren Hospital for injuries to her eyes, face, back, neck and limbs, CHRD said.

 

Although she later filed complaints and reports to local police, lawyers’ associations, prosecutors, and the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s discipline inspection arm, no official action has been taken, the group said.

 

‘Pattern of increased violence’

 

According to CHRD, the assault on Cui “follows a pattern of increased violence against Chinese human rights attorneys while they conduct their work.”

 

The group dismissed a promise by the court on April 13 to conduct an investigation into the incident, saying the court shouldn’t investigate the behavior of its own staff.