{"id":6214,"date":"2015-12-12T02:30:48","date_gmt":"2015-12-12T07:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=6214"},"modified":"2015-12-21T03:21:24","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T08:21:24","slug":"china-trial-of-lawyer-pu-zhiqiang-an-act-of-political-persecution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/china-trial-of-lawyer-pu-zhiqiang-an-act-of-political-persecution","title":{"rendered":"China: Trial of lawyer Pu Zhiqiang an act of political persecution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>11 December 2015, 19:16 UTC<\/p>\n<div class=\"wysiwyg\">\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong><em>Delayed trial of renowned human rights lawyer due to start on Monday<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong><em>Amnesty International\u2019s human rights experts on China available for interview <\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Chinese authorities must end their persecution of prominent human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, Amnesty International said, ahead of his trial which is set to begin on Monday in Beijing.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>According to his lawyers, Pu Zhiqiang faces up to eight years in prison on the charges of \u201cpicking quarrels and provoking troubles\u201d and \u201cinciting ethnic hatred\u201d, primarily on the basis of seven social media posts, in total around 600 characters, in which he criticized the government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe chances of Pu Zhiqiang receiving a fair trial are close to zero. He is being punished solely for standing up to the Chinese government in his courageous defence of human rights,\u201d said Patrick Poon, China Researcher at Amnesty International.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis trial is an act of political persecution in which the authorities are trying to silence an independent voice. His pre-trial detention has lasted for more than 18 months, with his treatment at the hands of the authorities marred by many irregularities. If there is any justice Pu Zhiqiang would be immediately and unconditionally released.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Pu Zhiqiang was originally detained by police on 6 May 2014, after he attended a seminar in Beijing that called for an investigation into the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. His prosecution has been marred by repeated procedural irregularities including prolonged pre-trial detention, the denial of adequate medical care and prosecutors refusing to disclose evidence against him to his defence lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>Pu Zhiqiang has represented individuals in many \u2018sensitive\u2019 human rights cases, including those linked with the \u2018New Citizens\u2019 Movement\u2019, a loose network of activists who aim to promote government transparency and expose corruption.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/press-releases\/2015\/12\/china-trial-of-lawyer-pu-zhiqiang-an-act-of-political-persecution\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/press-releases\/2015\/12\/china-trial-of-lawyer-pu-zhiqiang-an-act-of-political-persecution\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>11 December 2015, 19:16 UTC \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Del &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/china-trial-of-lawyer-pu-zhiqiang-an-act-of-political-persecution\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,43,136],"tags":[570,114,1420],"views":5115,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6214"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6228,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6214\/revisions\/6228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}