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Revision as of 14:06, 27 December 2018 by BabelStone (talk | contribs) (firing of lawyer and adjournment of case)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Wang Quanzhang | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1976-02-15) 15 February 1976 (age 48) Wulian County, Shandong, China |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Wang Quanzhang (Chinese: 王全璋; pinyin: Wáng Quánzhāng, born 15 February 1976) is a Chinese human rights lawyer from Wulian County, Shandong. He was arrested in August 2015 as part of the "709 crackdown" on human rights lawyers instigated by President Xi Jinping, and after being held incommunicado for three years, he was put on trial for inciting subversion of state power on Boxing Day 2018.
Career
Wang graduated from the School of Law at Shandong University in 2000, and worked for a time at Shandong Provincial Library. In 2003 he passed the National Judicial Exam, and in 2007 he started to practice as a lawyer in Jinan, Shandong. He later moved to Beijing, where he specialized in human rights cases, defending victims of land expropriation, labour camps, prison abuse, and human rights violations, as well as Falun Gong practitioners. He also worked with Swedish human rights activist Peter Dahlin, who was arrested in China in January 2016, and subsequently deported.
In June 2018, Wang defended some Falun Gong practitioners on trial in Liaocheng, Shandong, but the presiding judge Wang Yingjun (王英军) constantly hindered his attempts to present legal arguments. Eventually the judge ordered him to be evicted from the court. and he was then beaten by court officials.
Arrest and trial
In August 2015 Wang was arrested as part of a nationwide crackdown on lawyers and human rights activists instigated by President Xi Jinping, known as the 709 crackdown as it started in 9 July 2015. After his arrest, the authorities gave a notice of arrest to his wife, Li Wenzu (李文足), but refused to provide any information on where he was being held or to allow any access to him by his family or by a lawyer. For more than three years no information on his whereabouts or even whether he was dead or alive was forthcoming. By summer 2017, all the lawyers and activists arrested during the July 2015 crackdown, except for Wang, had either been released or sentenced to prison. Only the fate of Wang remained unknown.
Many of those arrested during the 2015 crackdown made forced confessions of guilt in court or on television, so Wang's wife, Li Wenzu, suggested that the reason why her husband had not been put on trial was that he refused to make any confession of guilt: "I think it might be because my husband hasn't compromised at all; that's why his case remains unsolved."
In April 2018, in order to publicise the disappearance of her husband a thousand days earlier, Li Wenzu embarked on a twelve-day walk from Beijing to Tianjin, where she thought Wang may have been held. Li was accompanied on her march to Tianjin by Wang Qiaoling, the wife of the lawyer Li Heping, who had also been arrested as part of the crackdown, and had been given a suspended sentence in April 2017. Li Wenzu was stopped from completing the march by the authorities
In July 2018, almost three years after he disappeared, Wang was finally allowed access to a lawyer, Liu Weiguo. According to Liu, Wang had not suffered any "hard violence" during his detention, which Li Wenzu interpreted to mean that he was subjected to other forms of mistreatment such as sleep deprivation and forced medication: "When Quanzhang said that he did not suffer hard violence, he was trying to tell me that he suffered inhuman torment!"
Wang was put on trial for subverting state power in Tianjin on 26 December 2018. Court documents accuse Wang of working with the Swedish human rights activist Peter Dahlin and others to "train hostile forces". Some activists and supporters were present outside the court, but they were forcibly removed or detained. Foreign journalists and diplomats were also denied entry to the courtroom. Wang's wife, Li Wenzu, was unable to attend the trial as she was prohibited from leaving her appartment in Beijing at 5 am on the day of the trial by security officials.
Within minutes of the trial staring on 26 December, Wang fired his court-appointed lawyer, causing the case to be immediately adjourned to an unspecified date so that another lawyer could be appointed for him. Commenting on this development, Dahlin said: "Wang is unlikely to get to choose his own lawyer, but this move will highlight the lack of any real trial being made available to him – that this is a show trial and nothing more".
See also
- Human rights in China
- List of Chinese dissidents
- Wang Yu, another lawyer arrested in July 2015
References
- ^ Green, David (26 December 2018). "Chinese rights lawyer fires his own state-appointed lawyer in a dramatic court appearance". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "Wang Quanzhang: China human rights lawyer trial begins". BBC News. 26 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- Wang, Quanzhang (30 June 2015). "Black Ten Minutes: Chinese Lawyer Recounts Being Beating in a Courthouse in Shandong". China Change. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- Sudworth, John (22 May 2017). "Wang Quanzhang: The lawyer who simply vanished". BBC News. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- "China human rights: Wife marches for 'vanished' husband". BBC News. 4 April 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- "Help get Wang Quanzhang home to his family". Amnesty International. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- Li, Wenzu (20 July 2018). "Update on Wang Quanzhang—No "Hard Violence"". Human Rights in China. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
- Kuo, Lily (26 December 2018). "'My husband is innocent': Wife of detained Chinese lawyer barred from trial". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
