The trial of Chinese rights lawyer, Xie Yang, who is facing charges for inciting subversion and disrupting court order, was postponed this week after a crowd of supporters, including diplomats, gathered outside the courtroom. China Digital Times reports on Xie’s case – a case which drew international attention after Xie’s account of torture was circulated via worldwide news outlets.
Rights lawyer, Xie Yang, is one of few rights lawyers still awaiting trial after the “709” crackdown of 2015, which refers to the start of an aggressive response by Chinese officials to quash China’s rights defense movement – perceived by the Communist Party as a threat to regime security for its potential to energize civil society and expose abuses of power and the justice system. Massive police operations targeting human rights lawyers, coordinated by the Ministry of Public Security, began on July 9, 2015, across China. It is estimated around 300 rights lawyers and activists were detained, interrogated, threatened, or charged in what some rights groups and observers have called the harshest crackdown on human rights and civil society in decades.
Chinese law requires courts to provide three days notice to the family and lawyers of a defendant of any changes to a scheduled trial date but sudden delays are not uncommon.
A supporter outside the courthouse where Xie Yang was scheduled to appear told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that although China “is always emphasizing the rule of law,” through Xie’s case, “we can tell whether or not there is any kind of reality in that.”
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Further Reading
Guo Yushan and the predicament of NGOs in China
Friends gone to jail – Chinese activists Kou Yanding and Guo Yushan
This family nightmare is the price of political expression in China
Pan Haixia’s first letter to Guo Yushan, dated October 14
Pan Haixia’s second letter to Guo Yushan, dated November 7
Pan Haixia’s third letter to Guo Yushan, dated December 3
Pan Haixia’s fourth letter to Guo Yushan, dated January 31
Beijing police recommend charges against civil society advocates
Foreign NGOs under increasing pressure in China
China’s strike against NGOs: “into the pan and deep-fry”
Beijing social think-tank shut down amid crackdown
A letter to my husband Guo Yushan
Yang Zili and the paranoid regime
China crushes intellectual freedom even after decades of successful market reforms
The plight of China’s rights lawyers
In China, to destroy lives is legal, but to save them is not
In China, Civic Groups’ Freedom, and Followers, Are Vanishing
Exile in My Own Country – A Letter to Domestic Security Officer Li in Beijing
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