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Final week, distinguished civil rights defenders Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi had been placed on trial behind closed doorways on prices of subversion. The trials occurred on Wednesday and Friday, respectively, within the Linshu County Folks’s Court docket, Shandong province, and ended with out verdicts, that are anticipated to be issued at a later date. On the South China Morning Publish, Mimi Lau and Guo Rui described the fees introduced in opposition to Xu and Ding:
The pair have been held behind bars for greater than two years. They had been arrested quickly after attending an activist gathering in southern Fujian province in December 2019.
[…] In response to an indictment issued by the municipal prosecutor’s workplace in Linyi final yr, Xu was charged with subverting state energy for main a “residents’ motion” along with Ding.
Below the Chinese language felony code, the utmost penalty for subverting state energy is life in jail.
The 2 are accused of recruiting a community of individuals to supply an “unlawful” documentary, arrange web sites and publish subversive articles, and of organising “secret conferences” for the aim of overturning the state. [Source]
Their judicial therapy has been removed from honest, as neither defendant has been permitted adequate entry to legal professionals, and their family members and supporters have been barred from attending the trials. Outstanding Chinese language human rights lawyer Teng Biao argued that “Such a political case has nothing to do with the regulation or proof. The entire trial course of is dominated by political forces behind the court docket.” Reporting on these instances for The Washington Publish, Christian Shepherd described the “opaque authorized course of designed to hide from individuals the plight of the nation’s human rights defenders”:
Luo Shengchun, Ding’s spouse who now lives in america, described the method as having taken place in “pitch darkness.” Her husband’s legal professionals mentioned they might not present her extra details about the case. Supporters who tried to attend the trial had been thrown out of their lodge rooms in the midst of the night time. All Luo obtained was a textual content message informing her that the listening to was going down.
“It’s getting ever worse,” she mentioned in an interview. “The facility of protection legal professionals has been stripped to zero, and each step of the best way they need to signal a nondisclosure settlement. Even calling this case a state secret has no authorized foundation, as a result of all they did was arrange two personal gatherings. Sure, they talked about human rights, however that needs to be allowed beneath freedom of speech.”
[… The] listening to on Wednesday proceeded in virtually full silence. [Xu’s] legal professionals, beneath risk of disbarment, had been unable to talk to the press. Calls from fellow Chinese language human rights legal professionals for Xu’s and Ding’s trials to be open to the general public had been ignored. The courthouse didn’t launch any statements in regards to the hearings. [Source]
Teng Biao: #Xuzhiyong is a central determine in #China’s civil rights motion. The mvnt and the broader civil society are within the throes of a chilly winter –a development that has proven no indicators of enhancing. The crackdown is ready to proceed for a few years to come back.
https://t.co/MSnRxg8Qzy— 滕彪 (@tengbiao) June 22, 2022
Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi have lengthy endured judicial harassment for his or her lifelong promotion of civil rights and the rule of regulation. They’re maybe greatest often called main figures of the “New Residents Motion” that aimed to advertise transparency, civic engagement, and enforcement of the civil and human rights purportedly assured by China’s structure. Within the months following an off-the-cuff assembly that they organized to debate these points with colleagues within the city of Xiamen in December 2019, safety forces hunted down and apprehended most of the contributors. Ding was detained later that month, and Xu was detained in February of 2020 and formally arrested in June. There was hypothesis that the pair could be tried in the course of the Christmas season of 2021, though that didn’t materialize.
Because the NGO Chinese language Human Rights Defenders has documented, UN consultants have deemed Xu and Ding’s detentions as arbitrary beneath worldwide regulation, and each males have made credible allegations of getting been tortured throughout their detention:
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has examined the instances of the detentions of each Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, and in each cases discovered that the detentions had been arbitrary beneath provisions of the Common Declaration of Human Rights and that the suitable treatment could be rapid and unconditional launch and the precise to compensation.
[…] Each Ding and Xu have credibly alleged that they had been tortured whereas they had been held in China’s infamous secret detention system often called “residential surveillance in a chosen location” (RSDL).
From April 1-8, 2020, Ding was mounted to a “tiger chair,” along with his again tightly tied to the chair, and with a band tightly tied round his chest, which inhibited common respiration. Daily Ding was interrogated for 21 hours – from 9am to 6am the subsequent morning. From 6am to 9am, he was allowed to make use of the lavatory and eat, however he was not allowed to sleep. Officers utilized these torture strategies 24 hours a day. By the morning of April 7, as a consequence of sitting within the tiger chair for therefore lengthy, Ding’s ft had swollen up into spherical balls and he was bodily depleted. In his first interrogation periods, authorities gave Ding Jiaxi extraordinarily restricted portions of meals and water: one quarter of a mantou (a bland Chinese language bun), and 600ml of water, with no different meals.
[…] Equally, authorities in Yantai, Shandong tied Xu Zhiyong’s legs and arms to an “tiger chair” whereas interrogating him for 10-plus hours per day, making it tough for him to breathe. Every meal consisted of just one mantou and Xu was taken to the interrogation chambers in a black hood. [Source]
This previous Sunday, June 26, was the UN Worldwide Day in Help of Victims of Torture, and plenty of NGOs have spoken out in opposition to the arbitrary arrest and unlawful therapy of Xu and Ding. “The Chinese language authorities is making a grave and shameful mistake by continuing with the trial of Xu Zhiyong,” mentioned Liesl Gerntholtz, director of the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Heart at PEN America, who known as for Xu’s launch. The Observatory for the Safety of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the World Organisation Towards Torture (OMCT) and the Worldwide Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), said that it “strongly condemns the alleged acts of torture and ill-treatment to which Mr. Ding Jiaxi and Mr. Xu Zhiyong had been subjected whereas in detention […,] strongly condemns the closed-door trial of Mr. Xu Zhiyong and Mr. Ding Jiaxi, and urges the authorities to right away launch them.” An Amnesty Worldwide press launch additionally criticized the arbitrary detentions of the pair:
“The Chinese language authorities have focused Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi not as a result of they dedicated any internationally acknowledged crime, however just because they maintain views the federal government doesn’t like. These unfair trials are an egregious assault on their human rights,” mentioned Amnesty Worldwide’s China Campaigner Gwen Lee.
“Having confronted torture and different ill-treatment throughout their arbitrary detention, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi now face being sentenced to years behind bars in secretive trials which were rigged from the beginning.”
[…] “These males’s bravery in defending the human rights of others needs to be counseled, not punished. Xu continued to loudly advocate for deprived teams even after being jailed for it, and spoke out in regards to the authorities’s dealing with of Covid-19 when others remained silent,” Gwen Lee mentioned.
“The Chinese language authorities is systematically utilizing nationwide safety prices with extraordinarily imprecise provisions, reminiscent of “subverting state energy”, to unjustly prosecute legal professionals, students, journalists, human rights activists and NGO staff amongst many others.”
[…] “Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi have been focused solely for peacefully exercising their proper to freedoms of opinion and affiliation. They have to be instantly launched,” Gwen Lee mentioned. [Source]
Immediately, admirable Chinese language human rights lawyer #DingJiaxi stands trial accused of ‘subverting State energy’ for relentlessly preventing for a simply, clear society.
We @ISHRglobal be part of his spouse @luoshch in urging China to respect fundamental due course of & #ReleaseDingJiaxi #释放丁家喜 pic.twitter.com/Xa9fsoRXFS
— Raphaël Viana David (@vdraphael) June 24, 2022
#China govt prosecution of #XuZhiyong is scandalous–legally baseless, self-destructive, an indictment of nobody apart from #XiJinping. https://t.co/JPMnt6h7R0 @hrw_chinese
— Sophie Richardson (@SophieHRW) June 23, 2022
Their trials additionally generated protests, led by Ding’s spouse Luo Shengchun, that occurred on-line and in entrance of the Chinese language consulate in San Francisco. The French and British embassies in China, together with U.S. government officials, known as on the Chinese language authorities to launch Xu and Ding. After it was revealed, the French embassy’s Weibo put up on Xu Zhiyong appeared to have been censored.
#无罪释放许志永丁家喜 #无罪释放人权捍卫者 非常感谢加州的朋友们🙏！当局总是企图用秘密失踪，延期关押，延期庭审，闭门庭审等手段让人们遗忘，但人们的记忆愈加清晰深刻！
愿高墙之内的人们感受到朋友们的关爱，愿他们早日归来！ https://t.co/1RlPx9YZc2— Luo Shengchun丁家喜律师妻子 (@luoshch) June 25, 2022
PRC propagandists and state media make doubtful claims about being “shadow banned” on Twitter. This is an actual instance of the French Embassy in Beijing being shadow banned on Weibo: Its put up about Xu Zhiyong doesn’t seem in a seek for “Xu Zhiyong” https://t.co/G7F4U8Wk9O pic.twitter.com/DigtYi1yli
— William Farris (@wafarris) June 25, 2022
Quite a lot of different Chinese language human rights defenders stay in detention. Xu’s associate, Li Qiaochu, a labor rights and feminist activist, was indicted in February on the cost of subversion and doesn’t but have a trial date. Human rights lawyer Chang Weiping, who participated within the Xiamen gathering with Xu and Ding, additionally stays in detention and has reportedly been subjected to repeated torture. Authorities have prevented his lawyer from studying his case recordsdata or from assembly along with his shopper.
【许志永与丁家喜案件开庭审理｜ 翘楚朋友致大家的公开信】
作为翘楚的朋友，我们谨代表她的母亲和律师，密切关注许志永与丁家喜案件的开庭与审理。
以下是我们的公开信。
请大家持续关注李翘楚、许志永、丁家喜等人权活动者的处境。#FreeLiQiaochu #FreeXuZhiyong #FreeDingJiaxi pic.twitter.com/k20SbFSgNI
— FreeLiqiaochu李翘楚 (@FreeLiQiaoChu) June 22, 2022
Journalist and #MeToo activist Huang Xueqin and labor-rights advocate Wang Jianbing have been in detention since September of final yr, and in March, each had been charged with “inciting subversion of state energy.” On Monday, the Worldwide Girls’s Media Basis awarded Huang the Wallis Annenberg Justice for Girls Journalists Award.
.@IWMF introduced the recipients of its thirty second annual Braveness in Journalism Awards. The imprisoned CHN columnist #HuangXueqin was awarded the Wallis Annenberg Justice for Girls Journalists Award, which is given yearly to a journalist who’s unjustly jailed, detained, or imprisoned https://t.co/n4sqUhg4BF
— Free Xueqin&Jianbing 释放雪饼 (@FreeXueBing) June 27, 2022
On Saturday, in a bereavement symbolic of China’s hostile environment for rights defenders beneath Xi Jinping, veteran Chinese language protection lawyer Zhang Sizhi handed away on the age of 94. Among the many first legal professionals to observe regulation within the newly fashioned Folks’s Republic of China, Zhang grew to become well-known for main the protection group for the “Gang of 4” and others who had been carefully affiliated with the late CCP vice-chairman Lin Biao. Zhang was dubbed “the conscience of Chinese language legal professionals” for his promotion of human rights. As described by Josephine Ma from the South China Morning Publish, “His fearless persistence in upholding the impartiality of the authorized career over many a long time gained him […] respect amongst legal professionals and intellectuals inside and outdoors China”:
Within the a long time following the landmark trials, Zhang represented defendants in lots of delicate instances that no different mainland legal professionals dared to the touch, together with well-known dissident Wei Jingsheng; Wang Juntao, accused of being one of many “black fingers” behind the 1989 Tiananmen scholar protests; and Bao Tong, secretary to reform-minded former social gathering chief Zhao Ziyang.
[…] Zhang additionally spoke out overtly in opposition to the sentencing of dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo in 2009, calling it “absurd” and a “political judgment”.
[…] In December 2008, at a ceremony in Berlin, Germany’s then justice minister, Brigitte Zypries, offered Zhang with the Petra Kelly Prize from the Heinrich Boell Basis for his “distinctive dedication to human rights and institution of the rule of regulation in China”.
[…] “His pleas show that, particularly in trials in opposition to members of the opposition, the Chinese language authorized system is way from honest. His life mirrors completely the very contradictory improvement of the Folks’s Republic of China. In a singular means, he has been liable for shaping China’s tough path in the direction of democracy and the rule of regulation.” [Source]
Human rights lawyer Zhang Sizhi (张思之) died on the age of 95.
In 2014, he was the lawyer for famed lawyer Pu Zhiqing. He additionally served because the lawyer for Wei Jingsheng, Wang Juntao, Gao Yu.
In 1957, he was labeled a “rightist” & did 15 years in laogai. https://t.co/mpB83tkJ67
— CHRD人权捍卫者 (@CHRDnet) June 27, 2022
Zhang Sizhi was a authorized large of China. Aside from defending Jiang Qing within the trial of the Gang of 4, he devoted a lot time and power on constructing a contemporary, skilled lawyer system and selling rule of regulation within the nation. https://t.co/cejQgEzw5z
— Xinqi Su 蘇昕琪 (@XinqiSu) June 24, 2022
Unhappy to see that Zhang Sizhi, one of the crucial inspirational individuals I’ve ever met in China, has died. He soldiered on for many years to defend human rights in an surroundings that was near-impossible and all the time gave journalists his time. https://t.co/41ZMb6P4NP
— Sui-Lee Wee 黄瑞黎 (@suilee) June 25, 2022
Mr. Zhang Sizhi, a veteran lawyer who acted for Mao Zedong’s spouse Jiang Qing, amongst others, handed means yesterday at age of 95. A pal despatched me a photograph taken in 2007 at a lodge in Beijing displaying him taking with Mr. Liu Xiaobo, who grew to become Noble Peace Prize laureate in 2010. RIP. pic.twitter.com/SMYUs2HAhT
— Jingzhou Tao 陶景洲 (@JingzhouTao) June 25, 2022
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