![\"Chinese](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2017\/05\/Chinese-human-rights-lawyer-Li-Heping-right-is-released-from-custody.png\")
Chinese human rights lawyer Li Heping (right) is released from custody after two years in which he was tried in secret. Photograph: Handout Photograph: Handout<\/p><\/div>\n
Chinese human rights lawyer Li Heping (right) is released from custody after two years in which he was tried in secret. Photograph: Handout
\nChinese human rights lawyer Li Heping (right) is released from custody after two years in which he was tried in secret. Photograph: Handout Photograph: Handout<\/p>\n
The last time Terry Halliday saw Li Heping, just a few days before he was snatched by police in the summer of 2015, he remembers sitting down to lunch with a stimulating, thoughtful and physically fit man.<\/p>\n
\u201cSlim, yes, but not emaciated. A man clearly in his 40s \u2026 A man who was fully present,\u201d the American Bar Foundation scholar recalled.<\/p>\n
Just days later Li, a crusading Chinese human rights lawyer, was spirited into secret custody at the start of an unprecedented government crackdown on his trade that has drawn widespread international condemnation.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday afternoon, after almost two years languishing behind bars, Li finally emerged, having been secretly tried and handed a suspended sentence for \u201csubversion of state power\u201d at the end of last month.<\/p>\n
Photographs and a brief video clip posted online showed the Christian attorney, now 46, being reunited with his wife and daughter, Wang Qiaoling and Li Jiamei, at their family home in Beijing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to say I didn\u2019t recognise him in the [photo],\u201d said Halliday, the author of a book on China\u2019s human rights lawyers, who like many was disturbed at the toll incarceration appeared to have inflicted on his friend.<\/p>\n
\u201c[He looked] very thin. He\u2019s aged about 20 years. His hair has gone grey. He\u2019s gone through a torturous time, I would say,\u201d Halliday added. \u201cI would defy anybody … to imagine that so much transformation could have occurred over two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing that I recognised was his smile: that wonderful smile of his that has always been a reflection of his warmth and his kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n
As news of Li\u2019s release spread on social media, friends and supporters expressed a similar mix of relief and outrage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Li Heping? Almost unrecognizable!\u201d Liu Xiaoyuan, a prominent rights lawyer who clients have included the dissident artist Ai Weiwei, tweeted alongside an image of the lawyer\u2019s homecoming.<\/p>\n
\u201cHair completely white,\u201d tweeted Zhang Dajun, a Chinese legal scholar.<\/p>\n
\u201cVisibly emaciated,\u201d tweeted human rights researcher Ye Shiwei alongside footage of Li\u2019s first hug with his wife and daughter in more than 600 days.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2017\/05\/A-photo-of-a-printed-family-photo-of-Li-Jiamei-her-father-and-imprisoned-lawyer-Li-Heping-and-her-mother-Wang-Qiaoling-at-home-in-Beijing-1024x614.png\")
A photo of a printed family photo of Li Jiamei, 6, her father and imprisoned lawyer Li Heping and her mother Wang Qiaoling at home in Beijing, China. Photograph: Adam Dean\/THE GUARDIAN<\/p><\/div>\n
Zhong Jinhua, a former judge and government critic, wrote: \u201cThank God!\u201d Li Heping finally [back] home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Halliday said he was delighted, relieved and gratified by Li\u2019s release despite his obvious physical deterioration.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriends and supporters and NGOS and governments and churches have been hoping and praying for this since [he was taken on] 10 July 2015,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this demonstrates how sensitive China\u2019s government is to the unrelenting pressure that has come from all sides,\u201d over its so-called \u201cwar on law\u201d crackdown.<\/p>\n
However, Halliday cautioned against interpreting Li\u2019s release as a sign that Beijing was showing leniency or mercy to a man who has been held without charge for nearly two years on what supporters and diplomats believe were politically-motivated charges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have got to be very sober that this is no release by the standards of any rule-of-law country. He is going to be … quarantined with his family. There will be cameras outside his building and outside his apartment. There will be security people on mattresses or chairs sitting outside his front door. They may be under audio or video surveillance inside their apartment. They won\u2019t be able to go anywhere at all without having security people accompany them, whether it is to the grocery store or the park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Halliday added: \u201cHe\u2019s lost his income and his living. He\u2019ll be kept away from his church. He will be shielded from other lawyers, from his Christian friends. So while I\u2019m very glad that he is no longer in a formal jail, many of us who watch this \u2026 believe that China has substituted the formal jail for an invisible prison in the hope that the optics will be better for international audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chinese authorities claim that at his secret trial Li pleaded guilty to using social media and interviews with foreign media to attack China\u2019s political and legal systems and having colluded with \u201cindividuals engaged in illegal religious activities\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the nearly two years since her husband was seized, Li\u2019s wife Wang Qiaoling has emerged as a feisty and sharp-witted campaigner who has refused to be cowed into silence by pressure from China\u2019s security services.<\/p>\n
During a meeting with the Guardian last May she burst into laughter when asked what she most missed about her husband. \u201cWhat do you think I most miss about my husband?\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday morning, Wang again appeared in high spirits although she said she had been shocked when she first set eyes on her husband who she hardly recognised.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has changed completely, his appearance, his physical looks… [he is] so different from the husband I remember,\u201d she said by phone.<\/p>\n
Wang said her husband seemed \u201cfine mentally\u201d but had \u201cwasted away\u201d. She said he had told her of the \u201csufferings\u201d he had endured while in prison. \u201cI am pretty sure he was treated with great cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his release, Wang said her husband was \u201cabsolutely not free\u201d and could not be interviewed at this stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are now being followed by six or seven tall, burly men. They simply follow us wherever we go,\u201d she complained.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Wang Zhen<\/em><\/p>\n Source: https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/may\/10\/emaciated-unrecognisable-china-releases-human-rights-lawyer-from-custody<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Tom Phillips in Beijing Li Heping was … Continue reading