Global rights group Amnesty International says China’s actions against a jailed human rights lawyer illustrate the Communist regime’s fear of rights defenders and has called for his immediate and unconditional release.
Amnesty made the comment on Jan. 6 after human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng lost an appeal against a three-year prison sentence for “inciting subversion of state power,” imposed by the Suzhou Intermediate People’s Court.
The jail sentence was handed down after a trial in October last year.
Amnesty’s Interim Regional Deputy Director for Research Kate Schuetze said the charge against Yu and his activist wife Xu Yan — who was convicted of the same offense — was “entirely baseless.”
“The Chinese government has used Yu’s online comments and his numerous international human rights awards as an excuse to label him a threat to national security,” Schuetze said.
“But all this really demonstrates is Beijing’s deep fear of human rights defenders who dare to dissent,” Schuetze added.
Yu is the winner of the 2021 Martin Ennals Award, an annual prize for human rights defenders, the winner of which is selected by a jury of 10 of the world’s leading human rights NGOs.
The award is named after Martin Ennals, a British human rights activist who served as Amnesty International secretary general from 1968 to 1980.
Ennals co-founded the human rights organizations ARTICLE 19, International Alert, and HURIDOCS.
Amnesty called for the immediate and unconditional release of Yu and Xu who were “imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.”
Earlier in 2020, Yu was convicted and sentenced to four years in jail for “inciting subversion of state power,” for solely exercising his right to freedom of expression, Amnesty said.
Yu’s health has deteriorated throughout both his jail sentences due to poor conditions and alleged torture and other ill-treatment, it added.
Xu had tirelessly fought to obtain the release of her husband and made numerous failed attempts to visit him in prison. She was allegedly under constant surveillance and faced repeated harassment from Chinese authorities.
She was “summoned, detained, and occasionally banned from leaving her house,” Amnesty said.
Local police detained Yu and Xu on April 13, 2023, while they were on their way to a meeting with a visiting European Union delegation to China in Beijing.
They were detained in the Beijing Shijingshan Detention Center and initially charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge commonly used by Chinese authorities to target rights activists and dissenting citizens.
The charges were later ramped up to the more serious “inciting subversion of state power” in October 2023, and the duo was transferred to Suzhou Detention Center in Jiangsu province, approximately 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) from Beijing, in January 2024.
According to Amnesty, Xu lost some 14 kilograms (30 pounds) while in detention.
“The conditions of her detention in Beijing may have amounted to torture or other ill-treatment,” Amnesty said.
Xu was “subjected to verbal abuse, including being intimidated by police who threatened to arrest her son if he undertook advocacy on her and Yu’s case,” Amnesty added.
Yu and Xu’s son who turned 18 just before their detention, “has since faced some serious deterioration of his mental health,” Amnesty said while adding his parents’ transfer to Suzhou “has exacerbated his isolation.”
Source: UCA News