The Chinese government has released and deported a Swedish man it accused of training and funding unlicensed lawyers in the country, leading to an extraordinary taped confession broadcast on state television.
Swedish embassy spokesman Sebastian Magnusson yesterday confirmed that Peter Dahlin had left China, but was unable to provide further details.
Dahlin, cofounder of China Urgent Action Working Group, was featured in a 10-minute segment on state broadcaster CCTV last week in which he confessed to helping unlicensed lawyers take on cases against the government “in clear violation of the law.”
He was arrested on Jan. 3 on his way to Beijing’s international airport, becoming the first foreigner to become entangled in a wide-ranging crackdown on the nation’s increasingly assertive legal rights movement.
Another cofounder of the group, Michael Caster, who lives in the US, tweeted that Dahlin’s girlfriend, Pan Jinling, had also been released from detention, but remained in China.
China often releases people without trial on condition that they not speak publicly about their case. That often comes with the explicit or implied threat of being returned to detention or having trouble visited on family members or acquaintances.
The Swedish embassy issued a statement on Friday in which it expressed “deep concern” over the cases against Dahlin and another detained Swedish national, Gui Minhai (桂民海).
“Many unanswered questions remain in both cases and we continue to request clarification of what our citizens are being accused of and the formal status of their arrests,” the statement said.
In its broadcast, CCTV described how Dahlin established an activist organization in Hong Kong with the help of employees from the human rights-focused Fengrui Law Firm in Beijing, whose lawyers have been charged with subverting state power.
Dahlin’s group called the confession “apparently forced” and rejected accusations that it manufactured or escalated conflicts inside China.
The group says it has been working since 2009 to help advance the rule of law by organizing training programs by lawyers for rights defenders focusing on land rights and administrative law. It also releases practical guides on the Chinese legal system.
Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Beijing’s authoritarian government has aggressively pursued those attempting to use the legal system to assert basic rights, framing their advocacy as a challenge to state security. That campaign appears to have intensified over the past year.
Hundreds of lawyers have been rounded up and accused of stirring up hostility toward the government and manufacturing cases to enrich themselves.
Dahlin’s group was not legally permitted to operate in mainland China.
CCTV said it accepted foreign funding and paid lawyers and petitioners within China, who in turn provided negative information to tarnish the nation’s image.
In the CCTV program, Dahlin said the people his group supported had “gone on to do acts in clear violation of the law.” He apologized for hurting “the Chinese government and Chinese people.”
Xinhua news agency cited witnesses as saying Dahlin had been planted by “Western anti-China forces” to gather negative information about China and fan opposition to the ruling party.
Gui is a Hong Kong-based publisher of sensitive books banned on the mainland who disappeared in October from his apartment in Pattaya, a Thai beach resort.
He also reappeared last week on CCTV, saying he returned to China to turn himself in for an old crime. His friends insist Gui was forcibly taken away.
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