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05-09-2017, 03:48 AM
BEIJING: A leading Chinese human rights lawyer went on trial on Monday for inciting subversion, in a case which sparked an international outcry after claims he was tortured.
Xie Yang, who had worked on numerous cases considered politically sensitive by China’s ruling Communist Party, was among hundreds of legal staff and activists detained in summer 2015.
The "709 *****down" -- named after the date of the first disappearance on July 9 -- was the toughest against civil society for years.
The majority were released on bail, but last year courts found six of them guilty of serious crimes, with sentences ranging from ** additional jail time to seven years in prison.
The fate of three leading rights lawyers, including Xie, is unclear. Here are their stories:
Police in the southern city of Changsha detained Xie on July 11, 2015, placing him under "residential surveillance" -- a form of detention where suspects can be held incommunicado for six months -- before formally arresting him.
Xie had worked on numerous politically sensitive cases, such as defending mainland supporters of Hong Kong democracy activists.
He told his lawyers in early 2017 that police had "extensively employed sleep deprivation, long interrogations, beatings, death threats, humiliations" to try to force him to confess to wrongdoing and incriminate colleagues, according to US-based charity Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
But at the start of his trial Monday, a transcript from the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court said Xie denied being tortured.
The court also said Xie admitted having experienced "brainwashing" in Hong Kong and South Korea in order to "overthrow the existing system and develop Western constitutionalism in China".
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/NF6zDz7xHGE
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~3/NF6zDz7xHGE/203343-Chinese-HR-lawyers-seen-as-enemies-of-the-state)
Xie Yang, who had worked on numerous cases considered politically sensitive by China’s ruling Communist Party, was among hundreds of legal staff and activists detained in summer 2015.
The "709 *****down" -- named after the date of the first disappearance on July 9 -- was the toughest against civil society for years.
The majority were released on bail, but last year courts found six of them guilty of serious crimes, with sentences ranging from ** additional jail time to seven years in prison.
The fate of three leading rights lawyers, including Xie, is unclear. Here are their stories:
Police in the southern city of Changsha detained Xie on July 11, 2015, placing him under "residential surveillance" -- a form of detention where suspects can be held incommunicado for six months -- before formally arresting him.
Xie had worked on numerous politically sensitive cases, such as defending mainland supporters of Hong Kong democracy activists.
He told his lawyers in early 2017 that police had "extensively employed sleep deprivation, long interrogations, beatings, death threats, humiliations" to try to force him to confess to wrongdoing and incriminate colleagues, according to US-based charity Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
But at the start of his trial Monday, a transcript from the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court said Xie denied being tortured.
The court also said Xie admitted having experienced "brainwashing" in Hong Kong and South Korea in order to "overthrow the existing system and develop Western constitutionalism in China".
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~4/NF6zDz7xHGE
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/World-TheNewsInternational/~3/NF6zDz7xHGE/203343-Chinese-HR-lawyers-seen-as-enemies-of-the-state)