ICC NOTE: Six human rights lawyers were officially arrested by the Communist Party of China after they were originally arrested six months ago. The charges carry with them the potential for life imprisonment if convicted which recent cases suggest there is nearly a 100 percent chance of conviction. The arrests are a continued pursuit by the politburo to solidify its power over China from any threat; political or other. China’s continued demolition of crosses and churches are the greatest example of the government’s attempt in subduing an alternative to the state. With the current figures of Chinese Christians standing above 100 million, 20 million more than party members, China if fearful of Christianity becoming a threat to the state’s position.
1/13/2016 China (Fox News) – Several Chinese rights lawyers, including a woman who represented high-profile women’s rights advocates, have been formally arrested on state subversion charges about six months after they were taken away, fellow lawyers said Wednesday.
The serious charge carries a potential sentence of life imprisonment and is an indication that the ruling Communist Party sees this group of lawyers as a threat to its monopoly on power.
The lawyers have sought to use China’s own laws to hold officials accountable or to protect citizens who have been critical of the government, though they also have been linked to protests outside courthouses that authorities have labeled as illegal attempts to short-circuit the judicial system.
Maya Wang, a Hong Kong-based researcher with Human Rights Watch, said charging lawyers with state subversion was “unprecedented.”
“It is an attempt to strangle the burgeoning human rights lawyers community, and by extension, the wider civil society,” the researcher said.
Li Yuhan, a lawyer for Wang Yu, said Wednesday that Wang Yu’s mother had received formal arrest notices for the lawyer on a charge of state subversion. Her husband, Bao Longjun, was arrested for allegedly inciting state subversion, a charge that is less serious but which also carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Wang Yu defended one of the five women, who became known as the Feminist Five and were detained last March after they planned to hand out flyers against sexual harassment in several Chinese cities in a case that drew international scrutiny.
The families of two other lawyers and an intern lawyer in the same law firm as Wang, Beijing-based Fengrui, were informed earlier of their arrests on suspicion of state subversion, said lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan.
Zhao Wei, an assistant to the well-known rights lawyer Li Heping, also has been arrested on suspicion of state subversion. Li’s whereabouts are unknown.
