{"id":7310,"date":"2016-07-15T11:03:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T15:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=7310"},"modified":"2016-07-22T11:04:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T15:04:04","slug":"mystery-surrounding-detained-china-legal-aide-deepens-lawyer-silenced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/mystery-surrounding-detained-china-legal-aide-deepens-lawyer-silenced","title":{"rendered":"Mystery Surrounding Detained China Legal Aide Deepens, Lawyer Silenced"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A

A screen shot from the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group’s Facebook page showing detained family members and attorneys, June 7, 2016. RFA<\/p><\/div>\n

The whereabouts of Chinese legal aide Zhao Wei following her reported release from detention last week remained unclear on Thursday as her husband traveled to Zhao\u2019s parents\u2019 home in central China and found it empty.<\/p>\n

Zhao\u2019s lawyer, Ren Quanniu, meanwhile, remained under interrogation and was denied access to his attorneys, his lawyers said.<\/p>\n

Zhao, 24, was working as an assistant to a top Beijing rights lawyer when she was swept up in a crackdown on hundreds of human rights lawyers and defenders that began on July 9, 2015.<\/p>\n

She was held for nearly a year in the police-run Tianjin No. 1 Detention Center on suspicion of “incitement to subvert state power” and released on bail last week, according to a July 7 posting on the social media account of police in the northern city of Tianjin.<\/p>\n

Zhao, however, remains unaccounted for, and a Hong Kong newspaper report that quoted her as saying she was resting with her parents in Henan province turned out to be incorrect.<\/p>\n

Zhao\u2019s husband, You Minglei, told RFA\u2019s Cantonese Service that he traveled to the home of his wife\u2019s parents in Jiyuan, Henan on Wednesday and found \u201cnobody there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody, including her brother, sister-in-law and their kids is at home. The door, windows and even the blinds have been tightly shut. No clothes were hanging on the balcony,\u201d he told RFA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe neighbors said they had not seen the family for a long time. I think that no one has been there for a while. I can only wait and there is no place I can get any news. \u00a0Even if I try to check with other people, no one will tell me,\u201d said a frustrated You.<\/p>\n

You traveled to his in-laws\u2019 home after Zhao was quoted in an interview with Hong Kong\u2019s South China Morning Post<\/i> as saying she was back at her home in Henan province and was staying with her parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI arrived back in Fuzhou\u00a0this morning. I was unable to see any family members of Zhao Wei,\u201d You told RFA on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The telephone interview with Zhao on Sunday in the English-language daily has raised suspicions, because in it she renounced her early work as a legal assistant to prominent human rights attorney Li Heping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have come to realize that I have taken the wrong path. I repent for what I did. I\u2019m now a brand new person,\u201d she told the Post<\/i>. The newspaper said it could not verify Zhao\u2019s location or whether she was under surveillance during the interview.<\/p>\n

Zhao’s lawyer in detention<\/b><\/p>\n

A tweet from her account earlier this week thanking her supporters and the \u201ccountless helpful and sincere uniformed police officers who worked on my case” had aroused suspicions that the message was dictated, or even sent, by police.\u00a0 But Zhao told the Post<\/i> she had sent the tweets.<\/p>\n

Zhao\u2019s husband called on the newspaper to release audio of the interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SCMP\u2019s<\/i> report is only text. If their interview was via phone, I ask them to broadcast this audio file and let the public know,\u201d You told RFA.<\/p>\n

Zhao’s defense lawyer Ren, who wasn\u2019t allowed to meet with her during her year in detention, was detained last week after he went to Tianjin police to investigate reports that she was sexually abused in jail. He stands accused of \u201cspreading rumors\u201d after he looked into the sexual assault reports.<\/p>\n

Ren\u2019s defense lawyers, Chang Boyang and Zhang Junjie went to the detention center for two consecutive days to request a meeting with Ren but failed, Chang said.<\/p>\n

“I just went to the detention center with attorney Zhang Junjie\u00a0today\u00a0to ask to see lawyer Ren, but we were not allowed to meet him. The reason is that investigators are still interrogating him,\u201d he told RFA\u2019s Mandarin Service on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to visit him\u00a0yesterday\u00a0as well but were told that the investigators were still questioning him. And\u00a0today they gave us the same answer. We protested against this refusal, requesting a meeting with Ren in 48 hours,\u201d Chang said.<\/p>\n

Ren\u2019s wife has also been summoned for questioning, the lawyers said.<\/p>\n

The year-old crackdown on China’s embattled legal profession comes amid a broader clampdown on rights activists and non-government organizations (NGOs) campaigning for social justice.<\/p>\n

Raids that began on July 9\u00a0and 10, 2015 of Beijing\u2019s Fengrui law firm, where Zhao worked as an assistant, widened to include the detention and interrogation of some 319 lawyers, paralegals, law firm employees and rights activists.<\/p>\n

Reporting by RFA\u2019s Cantonese Service and\u00a0Yang Fan for RFA\u2019s Mandarin Service. Translated by Chen Ping and Wong Lok-to. Written in English by Paul Eckert.<\/i><\/b> <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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