{"id":8120,"date":"2017-02-09T03:20:35","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T08:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=8120"},"modified":"2017-03-02T03:23:44","modified_gmt":"2017-03-02T08:23:44","slug":"court-applies-for-fourth-verdict-deferral-for-chinese-activist-who-voiced-support-for-occupy-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/court-applies-for-fourth-verdict-deferral-for-chinese-activist-who-voiced-support-for-occupy-protests","title":{"rendered":"Court applies for fourth verdict deferral for Chinese activist who voiced support for Occupy protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Guangxi court has applied for the verdict for women\u2019s rights activist Su Changlan to be deferred for the fourth time, her lawyer has said.\u00a0Su\u00a0was detained in October 2014 after making comments on social media in support of Hong Kong\u2019s pro-democracy Occupy movement.\u00a0She\u00a0previously worked as a volunteer for the New York-based Women\u2019s Rights in China group, and has been a long time campaigner for women\u2019s and children\u2019s rights.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan posted on his Twitter account on Sunday that he called the Foshan court and was told\u00a0that it had applied to the Supreme Court before Lunar New Year to defer\u00a0the verdict by another three months. If approved, it will be the fourth\u00a0time that it has been deferred, each time for three months.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_104306\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-104306\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hongkongfp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-08-at-4.31.42-PM.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 838px) 100vw, 838px\" srcset=\"\/\/www.hongkongfp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-08-at-4.31.42-PM.jpg 770w, \/\/www.hongkongfp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-08-at-4.31.42-PM-768x540.jpg 768w\" alt=\"su changlan\" width=\"838\" height=\"589\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Su Changlan. Photo: Amnesty International.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gcyberh gcyberh-3\">\n<div class=\"gcyberh-single acyberh-30\"><center><\/p>\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/82509819\/hkfp_content_336x280_3_1__container__\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/82509819\/hkfp_content_336x280_3_1\" title=\"3rd party ad content\" src=\"https:\/\/tpc.googlesyndication.com\/safeframe\/1-0-6\/html\/container.html\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-is-safeframe=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><\/center><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>She\u00a0pleaded not guilty at a Guangdong court at her trial in April to charges of \u201cincitement to subvert state power.\u201d Liu\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/trial-04212016105512.html\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">told<\/span><\/a> US-backed Radio Free Asia at the time that \u201cshe had no intention in that direction, and the case basically rested on a few articles she wrote.\u201d Three articles and three WeChat messages were cited in allegations of incitement against her, he said in a tweet.<\/p>\n<p>Su has\u00a0thus far been\u00a0detained for 27 months without being sentenced.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Special extensions\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to China\u2019s Criminal Procedures Law,\u00a0the court must announce a verdict\u00a0within three months at the latest after accepting the case. Further extensions may be granted in special circumstances with the approval of the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis way, the local courts can use special circumstances as a reason to apply to the Supreme Court for approval to extend the verdict numerous times, detaining the defendant long-term,\u201d Liu wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Liu asked the court for an explanation as to why the verdict was deferred\u00a0but received no answer. He was also unable to obtain an explanation\u00a0from the\u00a0court\u2019s supervisory department. He previously made\u00a0a complaint at the Supreme Court in November, but still has not received a response.<\/p>\n<p>Patrick Poon, a researcher at Amnesty International, told HKFP that deferments for such\u00a0cases were extremely rare.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe delayed verdict of Su Changlan\u2019s case once again explain[s] the bizarre practice of the criminal justice system in China. A person can be almost detained indefinitely as the court continues to apply for delaying to deliver its verdict. If the allegations were sound, why would this be the case?\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_66142\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-66142\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hongkongfp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/218324_Su_Changlan.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" srcset=\"\/\/www.hongkongfp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/218324_Su_Changlan.jpg 800w, \/\/www.hongkongfp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/218324_Su_Changlan-768x507.jpg 768w\" alt=\"Su Changlan\" width=\"800\" height=\"528\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Su and her husband. Photo: Amnesty International.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A ruling for Chen Qitang, another Guangdong activist also charged with inciting subversion, was also delayed three times, and the court looks likely to apply for another extension, Liu said.<\/p>\n<p>The presiding judge for Su\u2019s case has said that he is unable to decide the verdict, according to Liu. \u201cIt\u2019s not only the court that can\u2019t decide it, it\u2019s also the Foshan Intermediate Court \u2013 otherwise, they wouldn\u2019t drag the verdict out repeatedly. The direction of these two [Su and Chen\u2019s] cases must have met with interference from the powerful organs above.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Correction 9\/2:<\/strong> A previous version of this article incorrectly suggested that the deferral has been approved by the Supreme Court. In fact,\u00a0the local court has applied for the deferral but the Supreme People\u2019s Court has yet to approve it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Source: <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkongfp.com\/2017\/02\/08\/chinese-activist-voiced-support-occupy-protests-trial-verdict-deferred-fourth-time\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.hongkongfp.com\/2017\/02\/08\/chinese-activist-voiced-support-occupy-protests-trial-verdict-deferred-fourth-time\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Guangxi court has applied for the verd &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/court-applies-for-fourth-verdict-deferral-for-chinese-activist-who-voiced-support-for-occupy-protests\">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":[35,43,1333],"tags":[425,1130,1700],"views":5028,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8120"}],"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=8120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8121,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8120\/revisions\/8121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}