{"id":41820,"date":"2014-08-26T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T14:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=41820 "},"modified":"2014-08-26T14:38:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T14:38:00","slug":"41820-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=41820","title":{"rendered":"China Extends Detention of \\’Guangzhou Three\\’ Lawyers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2014-08-25<\/div>
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An undated photo of Tang Jingling.<\/div>
Photo courtesy of Tang’s wife Wang Yanfang<\/div>
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Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou have extended the criminal detention of three prominent rights lawyers on subversion charges after holding them for longer than the usual two-month period, relatives said.<\/div>
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Tang Jingling, Wang Qingying and Yuan Xinting were criminally detained on May 16, initially for “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble.”<\/div>
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The charges were later changed to the more serious charge of “incitement to subvert state power.”<\/div>
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The three were detained amid a nationwide crackdown on activists and family members of victims of the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square student-led pro-democracy movement in the run-up to the 25th anniversary on June 4.<\/div>
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Tang’s wife Wang Yanfang told RFA on Monday that the detention period runs from June 20, the date of her husband’s formal arrest.<\/div>
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“We didn’t find out [that their detention was being extended] until today,” she said. “They were formally arrested on June 20, and we received the notification on June 20.”<\/div>
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Wang said cases are normally passed to China’s state prosecution service, paving the way for a trial, within two months of formal arrest.<\/div>
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“Now they have extended it, probably until Sept. 20,” she said.<\/div>
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No meeting with defense lawyers yet<\/div>
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Wang said none of the detained lawyers has yet been granted permission to meet with their defense team.<\/div>
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“The lawyer applied for a meeting today, but we have to wait for notification,” Wang said. “It’s exactly the same as before; there have been no meetings.”<\/div>
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Beijing-based lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan confirmed he had been hired to represent Tang by his wife at the weekend, bringing the number of defense attorneys to three.<\/div>
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“The Guangzhou police department accepted my brief…and told me to fill out an application form for meeting with a client,” Liu said on Monday via the messaging app WeChat.<\/div>
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“The duty officer told me that the decision to extend Tang Jingling’s detention had been made on Aug. 6,” Liu wrote.<\/div>
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Lacking evidence?<\/div>
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Liu told RFA in an interview later on Monday that criminal detention periods may be extended in the first instance for one month.<\/div>
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“I don’t know why they have extended it,” he said. “It’s probably because they are having difficulties collecting enough evidence to support the case.”<\/div>
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He said police had told him that all decisions about meetings with the three detained lawyers are being referred to “higher up.”<\/div>
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A second defense lawyer, Liu Zhengqing, said the charge sheet for Tang mentioned his involvement in “civil disobedience movements,” a commemoration of the death of Mao-era dissident Lin Zhao, and a June 4 meditation event, as well as the campaign to end China’s “hukou” household registration system linking access to education and other public services to a person’s town of birth.<\/div>
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Meanwhile, Wang Qingying’s wife Zeng Jieshan said she had been summoned by state security police in Guangzhou last Friday, who tried to get her to incriminate her husband.<\/div>
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“They called me in without any official procedures,” she said. “I was in there for more than three hours.”<\/div>
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“They said if I didn’t cooperate, they’d take it all the way, and summons me for picking quarrels and stirring up trouble, or obstructing official duty,” she said. “Or you could lose your job at any time.”<\/div>
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‘Ice-bucket challenge’<\/div>
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Social media activist Wu Gan, known online by his nickname ‘The Butcher,’ takes part in the ice-bucket challenge for Chinese prisoners of conscience. (Photo courtesy of Wu Gan)<\/div>
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Zeng, who has already launched a vocal campaign for her husband’s release, said online activists have recently started an “ice-bucket challenge” — which started in the U.S. as a way to raise funds to combat ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease — on behalf of China’s prisoners of conscience.<\/div>
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“A lot of people are supporting this,” she said. “I have seen a lot of photos posted online already, 40 or 50.”<\/div>
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China has launched a clampdown in recent years on its embattled legal profession, with many civil rights law firms struggling to renew their licenses.<\/div>
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Rights groups say there is little purpose to the annual licensing scheme for lawyers and law firms, besides the exertion of state control over the legal profession.<\/div>
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New rules introduced in the past two years ban lawyers from defending certain clients, and leave them vulnerable to being charged themselves with subversion if they defend sensitive cases.<\/div>
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Out of more than 204,000 lawyers in China, only a few hundred risk taking on cases that deal with human rights, particularly when linked to the rights of Falun Gong followers, according to Amnesty International.<\/div>
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Reported by Qiao Long for RFA’s Mandarin Service, and by Grace Kei Lai-see for the Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.<\/div>
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 Continue reading the original article<\/a>.<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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