Activists detained as China rights lawyer trial begins

TIANJIN: Two activists were taken away 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 the 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, 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 people need to stop living in fear, we need to stand up and be brave.”

Several plainclothes officers then 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 8.15 am.

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 anti-China forces”, of being trained by a foreign group and accepting their funding.

The documents said 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.