Chinese Police Arrest Over 100 Lawyers for Alleged Human Rights Abuses
Earlier this month over 100 lawyers and activists were arrested and/or questioned by government officials in China under the claim that the attorneys are involved in criminal activity, reports the South China Morning Post.
Image credit: Philip Jägenstedt (Flickr)
Six people, including 4 Chinese human rights lawyers remain detained and there are now concerns over whether they will receive a fair trial.
Lawyers at the Beijing Fengrui law firm seem to be the main target, with Chinese police claiming they are in cahoots with a “major criminal gang” and are “seriously violating the law.”
China’s Ministry of Public Security released a statement accusing the lawyers of organizing over 40 events in the past three years that “severely disrupted public order.” They claim that the law firm has done this to raise their public profile in order to raise client fees.
Blogger Jonathan Turley sees things differently. He says:
“The authoritarian communist regime has offered preposterous excuses for the arrests but the message is clear: human rights will not be tolerated in the worker’s paradise that is China. Indeed, with pollution and corruption choking the life out of the public, the communist rulers still view human rights lawyers as the priority danger for the country.”
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