(Beijing, 22 April 2010) About 200 lawyers, activists and petitioners gathered outside of the building of the Beijing Bureau of Justice (BBJ) recently in a show of strong support to human rights lawyers Liu Wei (刘巍) and Tang Jitian ( 唐吉田), who attended a hearing concerning the proposed revocation of their licenses by the BBJ.
(Beijing, 22 April 2010) About 200 lawyers, activists and petitioners
gathered outside of the building of the Beijing Bureau of Justice (BBJ)
recently in a show of strong support to human rights lawyers Liu Wei
(刘巍) and Tang Jitian ( 唐吉田), who attended a hearing concerning the
proposed revocation of their licenses by the BBJ.
No decision
was announced at the hearing. CHRD believes that the two are retaliated
against for their human rights activism, and notes with concern the
harshness of the punishment: once a lawyer's license is revoked (吊销),
s/he will be permanently barred from practicing as a lawyer.
Further restriction of human rights activism
Beijing
human rights lawyers and activists voiced worries about the baseless
and harsh punitive measure taken against the two young lawyers at a
meeting they organized to discuss the case on April 20. Some viewed
this move as part of an escalation of retaliation against human rights
lawyers.
"Instead of going after individual lawyers, like the
earlier beatings of Li Heping (李和平) or Cheng Hai (程海), the action
against Liu and Tang is systematic. It is coordinated by the
political-legal organs of the government and is part of a wider scheme
to further restrict human rights activism by lawyers," said Jiang
Tianyong (江天勇), a Beijing-based lawyer.
In May 2009, Tang and
Liu were two of about 20 lawyers whose licenses were not renewed by
their local bureaus of justice in retaliation for taking on "sensitive"
cases, such as defending human rights defenders, political activists
and Falun Gong practitioners. Currently, seven of these lawyers,
including Liu and Tang, have been unable to obtain license renewals
despite negotiations with the authorities. [i] Although they cannot
practice as lawyers without up-to-date licenses, they still have the
possibility in theory of getting their licenses renewed at a later date.
One
of these 20 lawyers, Jiang Tianyong, had his license "cancelled" (注销)
in July 2009. Jiang followed the footsteps of Teng Biao (滕彪), whose
license was cancelled by the BBJ in 2008. However, even after their
licenses were "cancelled," they could in theory re-apply for a license
in the future. The administrative punishment of revocation is more
severe than denying renewals or canceling the licenses-it is a decision
to permanently bar the lawyers from practicing law. Only two other
human rights lawyers, Zheng Enchong (郑恩宠) and Gao Zhisheng (高智晟), had
their licenses revoked, but theirs was a punishment followed
automatically after they were convicted of crimes according to the
relevant Chinese laws.
"We think this [action against Tang and
Liu] has an enormous impact on human rights lawyers," said Teng Biao,
"because the revocation of licenses is, after imprisonment, the
harshest form of punishment [the authorities can give] to prevent a
human rights lawyer from ever practicing law again."
Recommendations
CHRD
calls on the Beijing Bureau of Justice to withdraw its proposed
revocation of the lawyers' licenses of Tang and Liu and immediately
renew them, as well as those of the other human rights lawyers who were
denied renewals of their licenses following their annual review in May
2009. The Chinese bureaus of justice and lawyers' associations should
end the use of the annual review system to retaliate against lawyers
active in defending human rights.
CHRD also urges the Chinese
government to immediately cease all forms of harassment, intimidation,
and persecution of human rights lawyers, and to hold the government
officials responsible for committing any such violations legally
accountable for their actions.
Source: Chinese Human Rights Defenders newsletter, 22 April 2010 .
