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<\/p>\nBEIJING \u2014 The Chinese authorities on Friday announced the formal arrest of a well-known rights defender who last month took part in a private seminar where participants discussed the army\u2019s violent suppression of the student-led protests of 1989 in Tiananmen Square.<\/p>\n
The decision to prosecute the activist, Pu Zhiqiang, a lawyer and a widely respected figure in China\u2019s rights defense movement, provides further evidence of the Chinese government\u2019s determination to silence even moderate reform advocates who have sought to work within the country\u2019s legal system.<\/p>\n
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In an announcement Friday night on its microblog account, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said Mr. Pu would face charges of creating a public disturbance, most likely the result of his participation in the seminar. Although the May 3 meeting was held at a private home, a photograph of the attendees was posted online at time when the government was deeply unnerved by the possibility that activists would try to publicly commemorate the 25th anniversary of the crackdown.<\/p>\n
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The Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau said Pu Zhiqiang, a lawyer, would face charges of creating a public disturbance. Credit Petar Kujundzic\/Reuters
\nIn their notice, the police said that Mr. Pu would also be charged with \u201cillegally obtaining citizens\u2019 personal information.\u201d The nature of that charge was not immediately clear, but some legal experts said it was probably related to his work collecting evidence on behalf of clients.<\/p>\n
Officials with the public security bureau were not available for comment on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Reached by phone, Mr. Pu\u2019s lawyer, Zhang Sizhi, declined to discuss the case, saying he had not yet received formal notice of the charges. But in a letter posted online Wednesday, he expressed pessimism about Mr. Pu\u2019s fate after a jailhouse meeting with his client earlier in the week. In the letter, he hinted that Mr. Pu\u2019s prosecution would involve a number of charges and expressed fears that he could serve prison time. \u201cPu\u2019s case is definitely not a normal case, and people shouldn\u2019t face it with a normal heart,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He said that although Mr. Pu, who is diabetic, had been receiving insulin, daily interrogations lasting up to 10 hours had left him physically weak.<\/p>\n
Mr. Pu was among scores of activists and scholars swept up by the authorities before the anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown. Four others who attended the private meeting and were detained around the same time as Mr. Pu were released last week. A niece of Mr. Pu, Qu Zhenhong, who works at his law firm, remains in police custody.<\/p>\n
A student leader during the 1989 protests, Mr. Pu, 49, a hulking presence with a commanding baritone, is a fearless legal crusader known for taking on cases that invariably irk the ruling Communist Party. In recent years he has defended the dissident artist Ai Weiwei, victims of China\u2019s labor camp system and Communist Party members seeking redress for torture they endured during extralegal corruption investigations.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Amnesty International described the charges against Mr. Pu as \u201cspurious\u201d and called on the government to set him free. \u201cThe Chinese authorities must end the witch hunt against those championing the rights of others,\u201d William Nee, Amnesty International\u2019s China researcher, wrote Friday night.<\/p>\n
Rights advocates said the decision to prosecute Mr. Pu had little to do with his participation in the Tiananmen anniversary seminar. Hu Jia, a rights activist, said party leaders were seeking to deter other reform advocates who use the legal system to advance the rights of ordinary citizens and expose government abuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message they want to send is that if a figure as prominent as Pu Zhiqiang can be arrested, so too can anyone,\u201d he said in a phone interview. \u201cThis is meant to be a sword hanging over the head of every human rights lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear how much jail time Mr. Pu might face, but the police notice said the authorities were investigating other unspecified crimes, suggesting that the charges could mount.<\/p>\n
In China\u2019s criminal justice system, the formal arrest of a defendant almost invariably leads to conviction.<\/p>\n
From:\u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/06\/14\/world\/asia\/formal-arrest-announced-of-chinese-human-rights-lawyer-Pu-Zhiqiang.html?smid=tw-share<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BEIJING \u2014 The Chinese authorities on Fri … Continue reading