Activists detained as China rights lawyer trial begins
TIANJIN, China: Two activists were taken away yesterday after protesting outside the tightly guarded courthouse in northern China where the trial of a prominent human rights lawyer is set to take place, witnesses saw.
Wang Quanzhang, 42, who defended political activists and victims of land seizures, disappeared in a 2015 sweep – known as the ‘709’ crackdown – aimed at courtroom critics of Communist authorities.
Charged in January 2016 with alleged “subversion of state power”, Wang had been in legal limbo – detained without a trial date – until Monday, when his government-appointed lawyer finally contacted his wife with the court date.
Just before 10am (0200 GMT), AFP journalists witnessed a man getting arrested after he protested outside the court in Tianjin, where Wang’s trial is believed to be underway.
“A refined scholar has been detained by you lot this way that even members of the public can’t see him,” shouted Yang Chunlin, a rights activist from Heilongjiang.
“This is fascist rule, it’s absurd. The Chinese people need to stop living in fear, we need to stand up to oppression and be brave.”
Shortly after, several plainclothes officers set on Yang and bundled him into a waiting black SUV.
Another man holding up a sign that said ‘release (the) innocent Wang Quanzhang’ was taken away by local authorities about 8.15am, a witness told AFP.
Amnesty International researcher Patrick Poon identified the man as Zhang Zhecheng, a rights activist from Jiangxi in central China.
Wang is charged with being influenced by ‘infiltrating antiChina forces’, of being trained by a foreign group and accepting their funding, and of having subversive thoughts as a result.
The documents seen by AFP say he worked with Peter Dahlin, a Swedish human rights activist whose group offered training to lawyers who have tried to use the tightly controlled Chinese judiciary to redress apparent government abuses.
Dahlin was deported in 2016 after a 23-day detention.
Wang is also accused of hyping up and distorting facts in cases he worked on, including a ‘cult’ he was defending.
The Tianjin court was under virtual lockdown, cordoned off by white metal barricades while media, diplomats and other observers were kept even further away from the building, separated by a busy four-lane road.
A refined scholar has been detained by you lot this way that even members of the public can’t see him. Yang Chunlin, rights activist from Heilongjiang