VOA issued a comment on the remarks made by the President of the Supreme Court of China at the Third Plenary Session of the Fifth Session of the 12th National People’s Congress
Source: [China’s official list of 709 lawyer arrests is the top official achievement] (https://www.voachinese.com/a/news-chinese-authorities-tout-crack-down-of-rights-activists-20170312/3762056 .html)
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At the Third Plenary Session of the Fifth Session of the Twelfth National People’s Congress on March 12, Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme Court, and Cao Jianming, President of the Supreme Procuratorate, successively summarized the national security section of the 2016 work report. Special mention was made of the "subversion of state power" case involving human rights lawyer Zhou Shifeng and democracy activist Hu Shigen in the 709 arrest case that caused widespread concern in the international community.
Zhou Qiang, the president of the Supreme Court, who was accused by the outside world of shining his sword to "judicial independence", stated in his work report that he resolutely safeguarded national security, especially regime security, and system security. Last year he severely punished crimes endangering national security and brought Zhou Shifeng and others to subvert the country. Regarding regime cases, increase punishments for violent terrorism, cult crimes, etc., actively participate in the comprehensive management of social security, and ensure the long-term stability of the country and the people's live and work.
The Supreme Procurator’s Cao Jianming also stated in his work report that Tianjin’s procuratorial organs prosecuted Zhou Shifeng, Hu Shigen and other cases of subverting state power in accordance with the law, reiterating resolutely safeguarding national security, and in-depth anti-separatism, anti-infiltration, anti-subversion, and anti-cult struggles. The departments jointly provided guidance on handling criminal cases such as cults and leaks.
Primary function
The work report of the two high-level governments specifically mentioned the "subversion of state power" by Zhou Shifeng and Hu Shigen in the 709 arrest case, which caused widespread coverage by overseas media. The South China Morning Post, an English-language newspaper that Hong Kong has been acquired by Chinese investors, reported on Sunday that the Supreme Court ranked the maintenance of national security at the top of its work achievements last year, even ahead of anti-terrorism and anti-cult. The work reports of the two high-level universities both regarded the imprisonment of human rights defenders as the greatest achievement of the work last year.
Hu Jia, a Beijing human rights activist who was "traveled" to Zhongshan, Guangdong during the two sessions, told the Voice of America on Sunday that what the two high government work reports showed was that the judiciary is a knife and a handle for safeguarding state power, just like guns and pens. The primary function is to maintain the ruling position of the CCP.
Hu Jia, who won the European Union Sakharov Human Rights Award, said that the citizens and lawyers arrested in the 709 case were nothing more than constitutional protection of citizens' rights or the use of laws to defend citizens' rights, but they were regarded by the government as the number one enemy endangering national security. .
He said: "They put the 709 case to such a high level, those people and those around us, we absolutely have not had the so-called illegal methods accused by the Communist Party. However, it is just such ordinary people and ordinary citizens. Asking for some civil rights, and then, including lawyers using the law to defend civil rights, but they are regarded as the number one opponent and number one enemy of the party-state."
Sensitive
The 52-year-old human rights lawyer Zhou Shifeng, from Anyang, Henan, has been practicing since 1995. He founded a law firm in Beijing in 2007 and later changed its name to Beijing Fengrui Law Firm. He became an agent for the sued officials of vulnerable groups, including Falun Gong and tainted milk powder. The main law firm for sensitive cases. In 2015, Zhou Shifeng planned to invest 8 million yuan to establish the "Chinese Lawyers Rights Protection Fund" to provide financial support to the families of persecuted lawyers across the country.
On August 4, 2016, Zhou Shifeng, who was arrested for more than a year, was sentenced to 7 years in prison by Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court without his family members in attendance, and his family’s entrusted lawyers had never met and were unable to participate in the defense.
On July 9, 2015, the Chinese authorities began a large-scale arrest of human rights lawyers, law firm personnel and other human rights activists, and Zhou Shifeng's law firm has become a key target of suppression. According to the latest report from the Hong Kong Chinese Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, as of the end of February 2017, at least 319 people in the 709 arrests had been interviewed, summoned, restricted from leaving the country, under house arrest, residential surveillance, arrested, and enforced disappearance. There are still 8 people in custody Pending trial, 1 person was placed under residential surveillance in a designated residence, 26 were released on bail pending trial, and 6 were concluded at the first instance.
Hu Jia said that the two Supreme People's Courts mentioned the series of "subversion of state power" by Zhou Shifeng and others in order to deter civil society.
He said: "It is to achieve deterrence, that is, whoever wants to do something similar to 709, whether you are a dissident, a street activist, or a human rights lawyer, will be removed one by one. This is what it wants to create. Horror. Then it also uses its propaganda machinery to express to the whole society and the world that in their values, these people are criminals. We use our judicial sovereignty and no one should make irresponsible remarks."
Torture investigation
On the eve of the two sessions of the CPPCC and the National People’s Congress, the 709 case was still detaining lawyer Li Heping’s wife Wang Qiaoling and Wang Quanzhang’s wife Li Wenzu. On March 2, they jointly issued an open letter to the two sessions, calling on NPC deputies and CPPCC members to propose a proposal on preventing torture and abuse. , Proposal or suggestion. The open letter stated that the issue of torture and ill-treatment was reported in the 709 major case and requested representatives of the two sessions to urge relevant departments to improve their work and resolve China’s ineffective prevention and accountability of torture and ill-treatment.
Prior to this, Wang Qiaoling, Li Wenzu, and Jiang Tianyong’s wife Jin Bianling, who is currently under residential surveillance, sent letters of appeal to leaders and lawmakers in some European and American countries. They stated that China's 709 major case started with a large number of lawyers being enforced disappearance, characterized by depriving arrested lawyers and citizens of their legal defense rights and being forced to incriminate themselves, and it was reported that Xie Yang in Hunan, Wang Quanzhang, Li Heping in Beijing, and Wu Wu Gan waited for news that detainees had been tortured.
In addition, the letter of appeal stated that since September 2016, Wang Qiaoling and Li Wenzu had seen 4 persons released from the 709 case. They all proved that the persons arrested in the 709 case had been under residential surveillance in secret locations during the previous six months. Most of the torture occurred during this period.