Tag Archives: Torture

Transcript of Interviews with Lawyer Xie Yang (2) – Sleep Deprivation

Xie Yang, Chen Jiangang, January 20, 2017

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Xie Yang

Continued from Part One

(The interview started at 9:23:32 a.m. on January 5, 2017)

Chen Jiangang (陈建刚, “CHEN”): Today Lawyer Liu Zhengqing (刘正清) had to go back. Let’s continue our interview. Continue reading

Transcript of Interviews with Lawyer Xie Yang (1)

Xie Yang, Chen Jiangang and Liu Zhengqing, January 19, 2017

In a series of interviews, the still incarcerated human rights lawyer Xie Yang provided a detailed account of his arrest, interrogations, and the horrific abuses he suffered at the hands of police and prosecutors, to his two defense lawyers Chen Jiangang (陈建刚) and Liu Zhengqing (刘正清). This revelation, and the extraordinary circumstances of it, mark an important turn in the 709 crackdown on human rights lawyers. This group, seen as the gravest threat to regime security, has not been crushed, but instead has become more courageous and more determined. This is the first of several installments in English translation. — The Editors Continue reading

709 Lawyer Released on Bail in Psychological Distress

HRIC received the following account of the “release on bail” of lawyer Li Chunfu (李春富), who was detained in the 709 crackdown in 2015. The account describes Li in a state of apparent psychological damage. It was written by Wang Qiaoling (王峭岭), wife of Li’s brother, lawyer Li Heping (李和平), and by Li Wenzu (李文足), wife of lawyer Wang Quanzhang (王全璋). Li Heping and Wang Quanzhang are two other rights defense lawyers who were detained in the 709 crackdown, and who have been in custody since July 2015 on charges of “subversion of state power.”

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An Update on Lawyer Li Chunfu’s Condition

Latest on January 14: Li Chunfu has been diagnosed today as having symptoms of schizophrenia and hospitalized. We learned from relatives that he was subjected to severe torture during his six months of “residential surveillance at a designated place,” China’s term for secret detention. More details to come. Once again, we urge the international human rights community to immediately begin an investigation into the extreme abuse that Li Chunfu, Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang, Wu Gan, Jiang Tianyong, and others targeted in the 709 arrests have suffered. – The Editors

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Chinese Rights Lawyer Li Chunfu Mentally Disturbed and Physically Ruined After Abuse in Custody

Li Chunfu (李春富) is a human rights lawyer and the younger brother of the well-known rights lawyer Li Heping (李和平). On August 1, 2015, he was taken into custody (less than a month after his brother was also detained on July 10) and put under residential surveillance for six months. In January 2016 he was formally arrested on charges of “subversion of state power.” On January 5, 2017, he was granted China’s version of bail awaiting trial, and on January 12 returned home by police. Following is the first report by Wang Qiaoling (王峭岭), Li Heping’s wife, of the homecoming. We know from multiple cases of personal testimony, both published and privately relayed, that the 709 detainees have been subjected to extreme torture in custody. Given the mental and physical condition Li Chunfu was left in after nearly 18 months in police custody, we urge the international human rights community to immediately begin an investigation into the extreme abuse that Li Chunfu, Li Heping, Jiang Tianyong, Wang Quanzhang, and others targeted in the 709 arrests have suffered. — The Editors Continue reading

Detained Chinese Rights Lawyer ‘At Risk of Torture’: Amnesty International

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Rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, who went missing on Nov. 21, 2016, after meeting relatives of jailed lawyers, in an undated photo.

A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer held in an unknown location on suspicion of subversion is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment, an international rights group has warned. Continue reading

Chinese Rights Activist ‘Tortured’ in Police Detention: Lawyers

Wu Gan

Wu Gan stages protest outside Jiangxi High Court, May 19, 2015. Photo courtesy of Boxun

Detained rights activist Wu Gan, known by his online nickname “The Butcher,” has suffered torture while being held under investigation in a police detention center in the northern port city of Tianjin, his lawyers have complained after visiting him last week. Continue reading

Interview: ‘They Humiliate You, And Treat You Like Animals, Worse Than a Dog’

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Wang Qingying (R) is shown following his release from prison. Photo courtesy of Xi Sen

A rights activist, one of the Guangzhou Three, recently released from prison in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, says he is having trouble returning to normal life, detailing ongoing restrictions on his movements and a lack of income. Wang Qingying, who was sentenced on Jan. 29, 2016 by the Intermediate People’s Court in Guangdong’s provincial capital Guangzhou alongside Tang Jingling and Yuan Xinting, spoke to RFA following his release at the end of his two-and-a-half year sentence, most of which was served in pretrial detention: Continue reading