Link
August 21, 2009
Office worker for Xu Zhiyong, who himself faces trial for tax evasion, has not been seen for three weeks.
Almost no one in China has heard of Zhuang Lu, which is hardly surprising. Plainly dressed and introverted, the 27-year-old office assistant completed her mundane daily tasks – booking tickets, paying bills – with minimum fuss. Then, three weeks ago, she disappeared.
Family and colleagues believe she is being held in a detention house in Beijing. Like her boss Xu Zhiyong, a prominent human rights lawyer who has fought a string of high-profile cases, she was taken from her home at dawn on 29 July by security officials. But unlike Xu's detention, which has made headlines internationally, her disappearance has gone unnoticed outside her immediate circle.
"Information about her has always been out. But because the main focus has been on Xu, not many people have noticed her case," said their colleague Yang Huawei.
Xu – who was formally arrested for tax evasion this week – is well known for his tenacious pursuit of sensitive cases such as deaths in custody. Shortly before his disappearance he was featured in Chinese Esquire. He co-founded the legal organisation Gongmeng, also known as the Open Constitution Initiative, which has helped the families of children made ill by tainted baby milk powder and issued a report criticising the handling of demonstrations in Tibetan areas.
In comparison, Zhuang's work at Gongmeng was essential but inconspicuous - the administrative grind without which no organisation can run. She is "thin and small, plainly-dressed, introverted, not talkative," wrote Teng Biao, another of the founders.
But though she appeared vulnerable to Teng, "one thing proved that she was not weak and maybe that is the most shining thing she did [at] Gongmeng," he added.
"In 2008, when summer was replacing spring, she was invited by police for a cup of tea. The national security people asked her to report on our work to them and told her that she would benefit. But Zhuang Lu refused. She told us about it. She had the courage and [they] must have been very angry and we are not sure whether today's 'serious result' has anything to do with them or not."
In his blog posting – since erased by censors – he described how she wept when officials came to shut the Gongmeng legal centre in mid-July.
"Such a gentle and honest girl was kidnapped by Big Brother without any legal justification," he added.
Xu's case comes amid a crackdown on activist lawyers. Zhuang's shows how others can be drawn into such investigations.
"I guess it is possible that they took her in the hope of getting some testimony from her against Xu," Teng told the Guardian.
Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, describes that as "standard operating procedure".
"It is also, of course, a way of putting pressure on Xu, because he is responsible not only for himself. Police like to make threats about consequences for relatives and people around [detainees] and he doesn't have family," Bequelin added.
"This is scaring people who work for NGOs. They are thinking it's not only the boss who can be taken away; officials can also go for the 'small' people."
Zhuang and Xu were due to meet the tax bureau on the day they disappeared. Gongmeng's problems began when authorities slapped a 1.2m yuan (£100,000) fine for unpaid taxes on it last month. Its founders say it paid slightly late but in full and points out that the penalty is five times larger than the tax bill. Staff who tried to pay off some of the fine after Xu's detention were told they could not do so because he had not signed papers to appoint them as legal representatives.
Xu has now been formally arrested, allowing him access to lawyers, but Zhuang is still in limbo. Staff at the detention centre where she is thought to be held told the Guardian they were too busy to speak when asked about her case.
Zhuang's father, who rushed to the capital when he heard of her detention, has returned home to southern China without authorising lawyers to act for her. Now, like her colleagues, he waits anxiously for her return.
Showing posts with label nicholas bequelin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nicholas bequelin. Show all posts
Friday, August 21, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
"Chinese Public-Interest Lawyer Charged Amid Crackdown" by Michael Wines, The New York Times
Link
August 18, 2009
BEIJING — Prosecutors have charged one of China’s leading public-interest lawyers, Xu Zhiyong, with tax evasion, his lawyer said on Tuesday, continuing a government crackdown on this nation’s small band of activist lawyers and scholars that has lasted months.
Mr. Xu, 36, is a founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, known in Chinese as Gongmeng, a nonprofit group that often has taken on high-profile cases involving citizens’ civil rights. The government shut down the organization’s Gongmeng legal center on July 17, three days after accusing it of tax violations, and the police seized Mr. Xu on July 29.
In an interview on Tuesday, his lawyer, Zhou Ze, said Mr. Xu was formally charged on Aug. 12. Mr. Xu could face seven years in prison if he is tried and convicted. The prosecutors now must seek an indictment, but that is widely considered a formality.
The government’s main accusation is that Mr. Xu’s group failed to pay taxes on a $100,000 grant from Yale University that was earmarked for the legal center. But human rights advocates and foreign political analysts agree that the charges are politically inspired, part of what seems to be a growing effort by security officials to shut down independent activism and especially activism that is supported with foreign funds.
The government has moved this year to block many foreign-based Web sites and social-networking services used by Chinese activists and, often, by Chinese citizens. It also has taken action against a host of activist scholars and lawyers, effectively disbarring about 50 lawyers earlier this summer. Gao Zhisheng, whose aggressive legal campaigns earned him a reputation as a gadfly, has not been heard from since being taken into custody more than six months ago.
A number of activist lawyers have been beaten or harassed by unidentified assailants while working this year on cases. And one of China’s most prominent political dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, has been held virtually incommunicado in a suburban Beijing detention center since December.
Separately, the Beijing financial publication Economic Observer reported on Tuesday that the government had begun a broad inquiry into the so-called resident representative offices of foreign-based enterprises — in essence, offices that many foreign groups, including many charities and nonprofit organizations, establish on Chinese soil.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying that the government was drafting new regulations governing the offices and that many of the existing offices were suspected of violating Chinese law.
The current rules exempt the offices from paying taxes but also bar them from conducting business activities. The unnamed source was quoted as saying that many offices have flouted that prohibition, while others are guilty of lesser violations like failing to report address changes or renew expired registrations.
The report stated that investigators had already begun visiting some resident representative offices. In at least some instances, the investigators have been accompanied by the police, Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with the Hong Kong office of Human Rights Watch, said in an interview on Tuesday.
The government’s move against Gongmeng and Mr. Xu, he said, has sent a chill sweeping over China’s activist organizations, in large part because Gongmeng is widely seen as one of the most scrupulous groups working to expand the rule of law. Indeed, Mr. Xu, a professor at Beijing’s University of Posts and Telecommunications, has been an elected member of a local governing body, the People’s Congress in Beijing’s Haidian district, since 2003.
“He was doing everything aboveboard,” said Mr. Bequelin, who called Mr. Xu “the voice of moderation” in public-interest legal circles. “If he goes down, who is safe?”
August 18, 2009
BEIJING — Prosecutors have charged one of China’s leading public-interest lawyers, Xu Zhiyong, with tax evasion, his lawyer said on Tuesday, continuing a government crackdown on this nation’s small band of activist lawyers and scholars that has lasted months.
Mr. Xu, 36, is a founder of the Open Constitution Initiative, known in Chinese as Gongmeng, a nonprofit group that often has taken on high-profile cases involving citizens’ civil rights. The government shut down the organization’s Gongmeng legal center on July 17, three days after accusing it of tax violations, and the police seized Mr. Xu on July 29.
In an interview on Tuesday, his lawyer, Zhou Ze, said Mr. Xu was formally charged on Aug. 12. Mr. Xu could face seven years in prison if he is tried and convicted. The prosecutors now must seek an indictment, but that is widely considered a formality.
The government’s main accusation is that Mr. Xu’s group failed to pay taxes on a $100,000 grant from Yale University that was earmarked for the legal center. But human rights advocates and foreign political analysts agree that the charges are politically inspired, part of what seems to be a growing effort by security officials to shut down independent activism and especially activism that is supported with foreign funds.
The government has moved this year to block many foreign-based Web sites and social-networking services used by Chinese activists and, often, by Chinese citizens. It also has taken action against a host of activist scholars and lawyers, effectively disbarring about 50 lawyers earlier this summer. Gao Zhisheng, whose aggressive legal campaigns earned him a reputation as a gadfly, has not been heard from since being taken into custody more than six months ago.
A number of activist lawyers have been beaten or harassed by unidentified assailants while working this year on cases. And one of China’s most prominent political dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, has been held virtually incommunicado in a suburban Beijing detention center since December.
Separately, the Beijing financial publication Economic Observer reported on Tuesday that the government had begun a broad inquiry into the so-called resident representative offices of foreign-based enterprises — in essence, offices that many foreign groups, including many charities and nonprofit organizations, establish on Chinese soil.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed source as saying that the government was drafting new regulations governing the offices and that many of the existing offices were suspected of violating Chinese law.
The current rules exempt the offices from paying taxes but also bar them from conducting business activities. The unnamed source was quoted as saying that many offices have flouted that prohibition, while others are guilty of lesser violations like failing to report address changes or renew expired registrations.
The report stated that investigators had already begun visiting some resident representative offices. In at least some instances, the investigators have been accompanied by the police, Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with the Hong Kong office of Human Rights Watch, said in an interview on Tuesday.
The government’s move against Gongmeng and Mr. Xu, he said, has sent a chill sweeping over China’s activist organizations, in large part because Gongmeng is widely seen as one of the most scrupulous groups working to expand the rule of law. Indeed, Mr. Xu, a professor at Beijing’s University of Posts and Telecommunications, has been an elected member of a local governing body, the People’s Congress in Beijing’s Haidian district, since 2003.
“He was doing everything aboveboard,” said Mr. Bequelin, who called Mr. Xu “the voice of moderation” in public-interest legal circles. “If he goes down, who is safe?”
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