Chinese authorities have confiscated a lawyer’s license and threatened to do the same to another after they volunteered to defend the nephew of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng (陳光誠).
The moves come as Chen, whose escape from house arrest last month sparked an international furor, said officials were “going crazy” with reprisals against his family in Shandong Province.
Chen’s escape and subsequent refuge in the US embassy caused embarrassment for China and led to a diplomatic crisis in Sino-US ties.
The Chinese Communist Party has always been wary of lawyers, who officials suspect could challenge one-party rule through their advocacy of the rule of law.
Authorities have frequently sought to prevent lawyers from taking up politically sensitive cases by suspending their licenses.
The pressure has intensified in the past year.
Last year, dozens of human rights lawyers were detained without charge as China cracked down on potential political challengers amid fears that anti-authoritarian uprisings in the Arab world could inspire protests against one-party rule.
Chen Wuquan (陳武權), a lawyer based in Guangdong Province, said the Guangzhou Lawyers’ Association had confiscated his license “temporarily” last week during a standard annual renewal. The lawyer Chen is not related to the Chen family from Shandong.
The association told him it could not renew his license because it had to deal with a complaint about an article he had written about the Chinese legal system.
“It must be related [to the nephew’s case], because this kind of complaint should be processed quickly,” Chen Wuquan said. “It’s not possible that they would have to confiscate my license and not allow me to handle new cases.”
The justice ministry was not available for comment.
Chen Wuquan was supposed to travel to Shandong on Thursday to meet the nephew, Chen Kegui (陳克貴), who has been accused of “homicide with intent.”
Chen Kegui is said to have brandished a kitchen cleaver at guards who stormed into the home of the blind dissident’s brothers after his escape prompted a panicked search by officials.
Jiang Tianyong (江天勇), a prominent rights lawyer, said that the charge of “homicide with intent” had been trumped up and that it should actually be “wounding with intent.”
“When Chen Guangcheng heard the news, he said: ‘How vile,’” said Jiang, a friend of the blind activist.
Chen Guangcheng, who is recuperating in a Beijing hospital, had said his biggest worry now was for his nephew.
Ren Zongju (任宗舉), Chen Ke-gui’s mother, was released after she “obtained a guarantee pending a trial,” similar to bail. Ren was detained on April 29 for “harboring” a criminal, according to a copy of the release document.
Late last month, six lawyers formed a team volunteering to defend Chen Kegui after an audio recording of him sobbing appeared on a blog. One of the lawyers, Liu Weiguo (劉衛國), said that number has grown to 13, despite warnings from the authorities to lawyers not to get involved.
Liu, who was initially supposed to be the lead lawyer representing Chen Kegui, said he was on his way to Linyi in Shandong to meet Chen Kegui late last month when state security officers warned him to drop the case, saying his license could be revoked and they would “meet” with his family.
He was asked to return immediately to Jinan, the capital of Shandong, where he is based.
“They said: ‘We have to talk about politics,’” Liu said. “I said: ‘I’m a lawyer, I only talk about the law. Besides, I don’t understand your politics.’”
Liu brought up the example of the downfall of Bo Xilai (薄熙來), an ambitious senior leader caught up in a murder scandal.
“’Perhaps the politics we have to talk about today would be wrong tomorrow,’” Liu said he told the officers. “They were speechless.”
After the threats, several members of the legal team decided that Chen Wuquan should replace Liu. Liu said he was worried about the threats, but pledged never to back out of the case.
“It seriously undermines the assurances given by the Chinese government that the pattern of illegalities suffered by Chen and his family in Linyi would be investigated,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch.
Rights lawyer Liang Xiaojun (梁小軍), also a member of Chen’s legal team, said officials from the judicial ministry telephoned him and told him they wanted to set up a meeting to talk about the “Chen Kegui case.”
Jiang said authorities had told him not to get involved in anything related to Chen Guangcheng.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS