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CHINA-POLITICS-RIGHTS
Activists detained as China rights lawyer trial begins
TIANJIN, China, Dec 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Two rights activists were taken
away Wednesday after protesting outside the tightly-guarded courthouse where
the trial of a prominent human rights lawyer is set to begin, witnesses saw.
Wang Quanzhang, 42, who defended political activists and victims of land
seizures, disappeared in a 2015 sweep aimed at courtroom critics of Communist
authorities known as the “709” crackdown.
Charged in January 2016 with alleged “subversion of state power”, Wang had
been in legal limbo — detained without a trial date — until Monday, when
his government-appointed lawyer finally contacted his wife with his court
date.
Just before 10:00am (0200 GMT), AFP journalists witnessed a man getting
arrested after he protested outside the court in Tianjin where Wang’s trial
is believed to be underway.
“A refined scholar has been detained by you lot this way that even members
of the public can’t see him,” shouted Yang Chunlin, a rights activist from
Heilongjiang.
“This is Fascist rule, it’s absurd.
“The Chinese people need to stop living in fear, we need to stand up to
oppression and be brave,” he added.
Shortly after, several plainclothes officers set on Yang and bundled him
into a waiting black SUV.
Another man holding up a sign that said “release (the) innocent Wang
Quanzhang” was taken away by local authorities about 8:15am, a witness told
AFP.
Amnesty International researcher Patrick Poon identified the man as Zhang
Zhecheng, a rights activist from Hangzhou in east China.
The court was under virtual lockdown with media and members of the public
kept away from the building, separated by a busy four-lane road.
An AFP journalist at the scene counted at least 50 security personnel,
both uniformed and plainclothes, who told journalists that the trial was not
open to the public.
Wang’s wife and a supporter were also stopped from attending the trial.
In an account posted on Twitter early Wednesday morning, Wang Qiaoling
detailed how she and Wang Quanzhang’s wife, Li Wenzu, were barred from
leaving a Beijing housing compound by groups of police officers for over an
hour.
“By the time I looked at my phone again, it was already 6:44am (2244 GMT),
there was definitely no way to reach Tianjin,” Wang Qiaoling wrote.
“Both of us were frozen stiff, we could only go home.”
Li was also on Tuesday placed under de facto house arrest with “more than
20” security personnel outside her apartment.
Wang Qiaoling and Li were among four women who last week shaved their
heads to protest Wang Quanzhang’s indefinite detention.
Doriane Lau, China researcher at Amnesty International, earlier this week
raised questions about the timing of the trial on December 26, saying: “We
think this is deliberate because obviously a big part of the world will be
having a holiday and will not be able to respond.”
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1120 hrs