{"id":48198,"date":"2015-07-16T22:58:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T22:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=48198 "},"modified":"2015-07-16T22:58:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-16T22:58:00","slug":"48198-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=48198","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Lawyers \\&#8217;At Risk of Torture\\&#8217; as Crackdown Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>2015-07-16<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2015\/29\/2015716CJyb4u2UsAAHJLL.jpg\" alt=\"2015716CJyb4u2UsAAHJLL.jpg (600&#215;600)\" \/><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><div><\/div><div>Three top Chinese rights lawyers are at &#8220;grave risk of torture&#8221; amid a massive police operation targeting the country&#8217;s embattled legal profession, an international rights group said on Thursday.<\/div><\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Some 200 lawyers, paralegals, and rights activists have been targeted by China&#8217;s state security police since July 10, with 30 people still missing or in police custody by Thursday afternoon, rights groups said.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>The Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website: &#8220;205 lawyers\/law firm staff\/human right activists have been detained\/arrested\/incommunicado\/summoned\/restricted freedom temporarily.&#8221;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>London-based Amnesty International meanwhile said it had counted 194 lawyers and related activists targeted, with 30 remaining behind bars or under house arrest by Thursday afternoon.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>It said lawyers Xie Yang, Sui Muqing, and activist Gou Hongguo are being held on suspicion of &#8220;incitement to subvert state power,&#8221; a state security charge that carries a maximum penalty of 15 years&#8217; imprisonment in &#8220;serious cases.&#8221;<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;All three men are at grave risk of torture and other ill-treatment,&#8221; the group said in a statement on its website.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Xie, Sui, and Gou have been placed under &#8220;residential surveillance,&#8221; which involves placing a heavy police guard over a detainee, either at their home or at an undisclosed location like a holiday resort or a private house.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>China&#8217;s laws on state security crimes state that police can hold suspects in secret for up to six months without needing to inform their families or ensure their access to lawyers.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Unprecedented severity<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Amnesty International China researcher William Nee called on police to disclose the whereabouts of the detainees, and to allow them visits from lawyers and family members.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Nee said the scale and severity of the current crackdown by the ruling Chinese Communist Party is unprecedented.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;The authorities appear intent on spreading fear among those willing to stand up for human rights,&#8221; Nee said.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;The use of state security charges is chilling, and only underlines the ferocity of the attack against rights lawyers,&#8221; he said.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>It is possible that many of those who remain in detention, as well as those who have been summoned and questioned, could face similar state security charges, according to Amnesty.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Wang Xiaoli, a lawyer based in the eastern province of Jiangxi, said she had been questioned and warned by police after she signed an open letter protesting the crackdown.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;They are going after all the people who signed the letter of support, and have taken statements while &#8216;drinking tea&#8217; with them to tell them not to openly support the lawyers any more,&#8221; Wang said.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>She said that ordinary Chinese people are next in the firing line, however.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;If they have detained all the lawyers, then who is going to help regular citizens when they target them?&#8221; she said.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/risk-07162015133347.html\"><div><\/div><div>For detail please visit here<\/div><\/a><div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;The Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group (CHRLCG) said in a statement on its website: &quot;205 lawyers\/law firm staff\/human right activists have been detained\/arrested\/incommunicado\/summoned\/restricted freedom temporarily.&quot;&lt;\/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}