UPDATE ON RELEASE: "Campaigning lawyer Xu Zhiyong released after arrest for tax evasion," by Jane Macartney, The Times

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August 23, 2009

In an unusual departure by a judicial system that rarely sets free anyone taken into detention, the authorities today released one of China’s most pioneering advocates of legal rights only days after his formal arrest for tax evasion.

The detention around three weeks ago and arrest last week of lawyer Xu Zhiyong had been seen as part of a campaign by the Communist Party authorities to stifle dissent before the 60th anniversary on October 1 of the founding of Communist rule.

Speaking to The Times, the lawyer said: “I am really not clear as to why I have been released. It is still possible that I will face formal charges.”

The lawyer, whose clients have ranged from death-row clients to parents of babies who died or fell ill after drinking tainted milk powder last year, said: “Right now I feel incredibly moved by everything that has happened. I want to thank everyone who has worried about me since I was detained.”

Mr Xu, 36, is one of the most dogged human-rights lawyers in China and was taken from his home at dawn about three weeks ago after a crackdown on a non-governmental organisation that he co-founded to advance legal rights.

He said that his detention and arrest, which could still bring to an end one of the most brilliant legal careers in China if charges are filed, had not come as a complete surprise. “I had felt before that it was possible I could be arrested.”

Mr Xu may have expected to have been arrested for his legal work rather than for tax evasion.

Last month, government officials closed Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, his legal aid and research group. The organisation worked on public interest law, addressing issues such as death penalty cases and the existence of unofficial "black jails".

Most recently, Gongmeng lawyers represented parents whose children fell ill last year after drinking milk contaminated with the chemical melamine. The tainted milk was blamed for the deaths of six babies and made nearly 300,000 other children ill.

The centre's closure came after the tax authorities said that the group faced a fine of 1.4 million yuan (£140,000) for failing to pay taxes. Mr Xu had been scheduled to meet tax officials on July 30, the day after he was detained. Colleagues say that formal notification of the unpaid taxes has yet to be issued, meaning that his arrest was a violation of due process.

The incarceration of Mr Xu had come amid a nationwide crackdown on activist lawyers and non-governmental organisations. The legal activist is prominent not only as a lawyer but as one of the few elected members of a Beijing district branch of the National People’s Congress (parliament). Representatives of Gongmeng have paid back about 700,000 yuan. Under Chinese law if the taxes are repaid a defendant can face only civil and not criminal charges.

Mr Xu gained prominence in 2003 with the landmark Sun Zhigang case in which a 27-year-old university graduate died after being beaten in police custody. Mr Sun had been detained under an extrajudicial system called custody and repatriation that gave police virtually unlimited authority to hold anyone if they did not have a residence permit for that area.

Mr Xu and fellow legal scholars petitioned the National People's Congress, questioning the constitutionality of the system, which was abolished later that year.

He faces a maximum seven-year sentence if formally charged with tax evasion.