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Detained Chinese lawyer wins Franco-German human rights award
BEIJING, Jan 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – The French and German ambassadors to
Beijing have granted a human rights award to a detained Chinese lawyer, with
his wife picking up the prize on his behalf.
Yu Wensheng — best known for suing the Beijing government over the city’s
once chronic pollution — was detained last January and charged with
“inciting subversion of state power”.
Beijing has stepped up its crackdown on civil society since President Xi
Jinping took power in 2012, tightening restrictions on freedom of speech and
detaining hundreds of activists and lawyers.
Prior to his arrest, Yu had circulated an open letter calling for five
reforms to China’s constitution, including the institution of multi-candidate
presidential elections.
His wife, Xu Yan, received the award at an event organised by the German
embassy in Beijing on Monday.
The prominent attorney was among 15 winners of the Franco-German Prize for
Human Rights and the Rule of Law for 2018, announced in November.
“He (Yu) has lost his freedom for a year and not allowed to meet with a
defence lawyer,” Xu said at the event attended by the German and French
ambassadors to China, according to a transcript she posted on her WeChat
social media account.
“His case has been postponed three times, and referred back to the police
for further investigations twice,” Xu told AFP, adding that Yu’s case had
been referred again for “for review and prosecution” in December.
“I learned about this situation when I went to the Xuzhou City
Procuratorate on December 24. I didn’t receive any news before that,” she
said.
“No matter how difficult it is, I will continue to defend the rights of Yu
Wensheng, because I believe Yu Wensheng,” Xu said.
For several days beginning on July 9, 2015, more than 200 Chinese human
rights lawyers and activists were detained or questioned in a police sweep
that rights groups called “unprecedented.”
The “709 crackdown,” as it was later dubbed, marked the largest clampdown
on the legal profession in China’s recent history.
But Yu was not arrested during the sweep and had continued to express his
opinions on legal issues.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Xu Yan and Li Wenzu — the wife
of another detained rights lawyer, Wang Quanzhang — during her trip to
Beijing last May in a rare move for a visiting leader.
BSS/AFP/MR/1227 hrs