China: China to Try One Rights Lawyer as European Diplomats Visit Family of Another

December 21, 2016

Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hunan are preparing to try a top lawyer on subversion and public order charges, amid an ongoing crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists nationwide.

The case of Xie Yang has now been transferred from the state prosecutor’s office to the No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court in the provincial capital Changsha, paving the way for his trial for “incitement to disrupt public order and subvert state power,” his wife told RFA on Wednesday.

“Neither I nor the lawyer had any verbal or written notification from them,” Xie’s wife Chen Guiqiu said. “It wasn’t until I called the Changsha prosecutor’s case management department myself to ask whether the case had gone to the court that they told me it had.”

“It was sent to the court on Dec. 16,” she said.

Xie was detained in a nationwide police operation targeting more than 300 rights lawyers, law firm staff and activists that began with the detention of lawyers at the Beijing Fengrui law firm on July 9, 2015.

Chen tried to hire lawyer Lin Qilei to defend Xie, but the authorities refused to acknowledge his status as Xie’s lawyer.

Lin said Xie had been illegally kidnapped, subjected to enforced disappearance and tortured while in detention, and that the authorities have failed to follow due process throughout his case.

…

More than 300 lawyers, law firm staff, rights activists and relatives were detained, questioned, or placed under surveillance or other restrictions since the crackdown began.

At least 16 remain in criminal detention on subversion charges, while four have been handed jail terms of up to seven years, according to the Hong Kong-based Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group.

…

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/lawyers-trials-12212016123537.html

http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-unveils-list-of-activities-permitted-for-foreign-nonprofits-1482319229

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.lawyer.in.china.may.have.been.tortured.in.prison/103208.htm

DAY OF THE ENDANGERED LAWYER JANUARY 24, 2017 (CHINA):

http://dayoftheendangeredlawyer.eu/

https://www.facebook.com/events/374243992921815/

Turkey: 28 arrested in FETÖ probe across Turkey

December 22, 2016

Twenty-eight people across Turkey were arrested yesterday as part of the investigation into the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), according to public prosecutor and police statements. One operation in the central city of Sivas targeted 12 workers in state institutions and organizations, all suspected for their use of the ByLock messaging app, linked to the July 15 coup attempt.

…

Nine judges and a prosecutor were also arrested in the southeastern city of Sanliurfa, said the local chief public prosecutor’s office. The arrested suspects were taken to police headquarters after a health check.

…

http://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-terror/2016/12/22/28-arrested-in-feto-probe-across-turkey

http://www.union-syndicale-magistrats.org/web2/themes/fr/userfiles/fichier/publication/international/uim/resolution_mexico16.pdf (FRANCAIS)

China/Australia: Attacks on lawyers

(2016) 41(4) AltLJ 290

Attacks on lawyers are increasing around the world, and represent a significant threat to the rule of law and democracy. They include extra judicial killings, disappearances, political imprisonments and torture, revocation of licences to practice among many forms of interference with a lawyer’s professional duty. They are usually aimed at human rights lawyers and legal critics of government policies.

Australia has not been immune, with a Melbourne lawyer slain a few years ago and a judge some years earlier. There we have also seen unprecedented attacks by the media and political figures on the judges who decided that Brexit must be authorised by Parliament.

The International Association of People’s Lawyers’ list of countries where there have been attacks on lawyers has grown to 115, about 20 per cent in Africa. Recently, human rights lawyers were assassinated in Kenya and Nigeria. In October 2016, at Nairobi, Kenya, the Pan African Lawyers Union Conference devoted a session to the problem.

…

In China the entire human rights lawyer community is under sustained attack. All have been sanctioned with a wide range of punishments, including prison, torture and loss of licence to practice. At a meeting in Brussels in November, representatives of European legal professional societies and lawyer activist groups met to plan activities for the 7th annual Day of the Endangered Lawyer, 24 January 2017 which focuses on China. In Australia, the Australian Lawyers for Human Rights is organising events for the day. Hopefully the professional societies will join their European colleagues and those in other countries to give support to the brave Chinese lawyers.

https://www.altlj.org/news-and-views/downunderallover/duao-vol-41-4/1104-attacks-on-lawyers