CALL FOR HELP: A coalition of human rights groups declared July 9 Chinese Human Rights Lawyers’ Day and honored two Chinese rights lawyers who have disappeared
Taipei Times
Date: Jul 10, 2018
By: Ann Maxon / Staff reporter
A coalition of human rights groups and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yu Mei-nu, left, and lawyer Wang Lung-kuan, center, attend a news conference in Taipei yesterday calling on Beijing to release lawyers arrested in a crackdown in 2015. Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) yesterday called on Beijing to release the lawyers arrested in Beijing’s “709 crackdown” of 2015 as they marked its third anniversary.
While the crackdown is considered the largest ever on the legal profession in China, it was only the beginning of a series of clampdowns.
As of May 17 this year, more than 321 human rights lawyers and civil rights advocates, as well as members of their families, have been arrested, summoned for questioning, banned from leaving the country and placed under surveillance or house arrest, the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said in a statement yesterday.
As part of efforts to raise awareness of the issue, a coalition of human rights groups from around the world last year jointly declared July 9 as Chinese Human Rights Lawyers’ Day, and this year they are honoring Chinese human rights lawyers Wang Quanzhang (王全璋) and Gao Zhisheng (高智晟), Taipei Bar Association director Wang Lung-kuan (王龍寬) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. [FULL STORY]
