{"id":7077,"date":"2016-06-02T22:31:47","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T02:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=7077"},"modified":"2016-06-03T02:33:26","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T06:33:26","slug":"families-of-detained-rights-lawyers-speak-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/families-of-detained-rights-lawyers-speak-out","title":{"rendered":"Families of Detained Rights Lawyers Speak Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 200 rights\u00a0lawyers, law firm staff,\u00a0and activists were detained or questioned last year in a nationwide crackdown\u00a0known as the\u00a0\u201cBlack Friday\u201d round-up<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0While the majority of those in custody have now been released,\u00a0a number of individuals were\u00a0formally charged<\/span><\/a>\u00a0with several\u00a0paraded on state television making alleged confessions<\/span><\/a>. Little information is available on those who remain in detention<\/span><\/a>, many of whom are prohibited from contacting family members.<\/p>\n

At CNN, James Griffiths reports that the wives of three detained lawyers\u2013Li Heping<\/span><\/a>, Xie Yanyi and Wang Quanzhang\u2013have called for their husbands\u2019 release despite orders from government officials to remain silent<\/span><\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re not allowed to speak out.\u201d<\/p>\n

But they are. The wives of three detained Chinese human rights lawyers<\/span><\/a> have released a defiant video demanding the release of their husbands and calling on the U.S. and other countries to pressure Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the authorities locked up our loved ones illegally, they told us to follow their rules,\u201d says Wang Qialing, the wife of Li Heping, a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer who was arrested \u2014 along with hundreds of other activists and lawyers \u2014 in July 2015.<\/p>\n

Those rules included not hiring their own lawyers, not communicating with the relatives of other detainees, not talking to the media, and not speaking out online.<\/p>\n

\u201cFacing these illegal and groundless requirements from the government, we as family members didn\u2019t give in,\u201d Wang says. [Source<\/span><\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The husband of Zhao Wei<\/span><\/a>, the 25-year-old legal assistant to lawyer Li Heping who was\u00a0detained on charges of subversion<\/span><\/a>, has expressed concern about her safety<\/span><\/a> as rumors surfaced that she might have been subjected to abuse<\/span><\/a><\/strong> while in custody. From\u00a0Xin Lin and Qiao Long at RFA:<\/p>\n

Lawyer Ren Quanping, who has been hired by Zhao\u2019s family but has been denied official recognition as her attorney, told RFA he had only heard unconfirmed reports about his client\u2019s treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been hearing reports from different sources that the detention center guards were heard boasting about how many female inmates they had \u2018fun\u2019 with,\u201d Ren told RFA. \u201cZhao Wei\u2019s name was mentioned.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u2026H]e added: \u201cI have heard that detention centers are pretty messed up, and this sort of thing happens a lot \u2026 to varying degrees. It\u2019s very widespread.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhao\u2019s husband You Minglei said he believes she has been mistreated to some degree while in detention, but he doesn\u2019t know the circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has definitely suffered some form of physical humiliation, because she\u2019s been in there for nearly a year now,\u201d You said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to figure out when this happened, though.\u201d [Source<\/span><\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Elsewhere, RFA\u2019s\u00a0Hai Nan reports that authorities in Tianjin have confirmed the continued detainment of Xing Qingxian and Tang Zhishun<\/span><\/a><\/strong>, friends of arrested rights lawyer Wang Yu<\/span><\/a>\u00a0who were taken into custody last year after a failed attempt to help Wang\u2019s son,\u00a0Bao Zhuoxuan, flee to the U.S. via Myanmar<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rights activist Tang Zhishun is being held in the Tianjin No. 2 Detention Center on suspicion of \u201corganizing the smuggling of persons across a national boundary,\u201d his lawyer Tan Chenshou told RFA onFriday<\/span><\/span>.<\/p>\n

The family of fellow activist Xing Qingxian received official notification of his criminal detention on identical charges at the same facility earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Tang and Xing were detained more than seven months ago in northern Myanmar, as they posed as tourists to escort Bao Zhuoxuan, the 16-year-old son of detained rights lawyers Wang Yu<\/span><\/a> and Bao Longjun, across the border. [Source<\/span><\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, South China Morning Post\u2019s Nectar Gan writes that lawyer Tang Jingling\u2019s five-year jail term is expected to be upheld<\/span><\/a> by the Guangdong Higher People\u2019s Court despite an inclusion in the appeal hearing.\u00a0Tang\u00a0was convicted of \u201cinciting subversion of state power\u201d in January<\/span><\/a>, together with two other activists.<\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2016\/06\/wives-detained-rights-lawyers-refuse-silenced\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 200 rights\u00a0lawyers, law firm s … Continue reading →<\/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":[35,136,1333],"tags":[1498,1350],"views":5648,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077"}],"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=7077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7079,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7077\/revisions\/7079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}