I Folkets dagblad, kommunistpartiets officielle talerør, og andre store medier i Kina har myndighederne ladet forstå, at flere fremtrædende advokater står under anklage for at have planlagt at ”ødelægge og undergrave den offentlige orden.”
Sådanne udsagn benyttes ofte om systemkritikere.
De seneste dage er over 100 personer ført bort til politiafhøring eller ’inviteret til te’, som et tvunget interview med myndighederne kaldes.
Fem menneskeretsadvokater er desuden under husarrest, oplyser organisationen China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group med base i Hong Kong.
“Når myndighederne nu strammer grebet, sker det for at skræmme aktivister og advokater til tavshed”, siger Amnesty Internationals researcher for Kina, William Nee, til DR Nyheder mandag.
“Det er et kraftigt signal til advokaterne om, at de ikke skal tage sensitive sager og ikke forsøge at få opbakning til deres sager på internettet og arrangere protester”, siger han.
Bekymrede myndigheder
Ifølge William Nee har mange af aktivisterne og advokaterne haft lidt for stort held med at sprede interesse for deres sager via de sociale medier og siden i medierne generelt. Det bekymrer myndighederne, der frygter, at kritikken vil blive rettet mod dem.
I alt er 72 advokater fra 16 dele af landet blevet afhørt eller tilbageholdt, og fem advokater er under husarrest, oplyser China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group i en mail til DR Nyheder:
Wang Yu er en af de advokater, der tilbageholdes i sit eget hjem.
Hun er en af Kinas fremtrædende menneskeretsadvokater og blandt andet advokat for Kinas mest kendte feminist-aktivister og for den muslimske minoritets-forkæmper Ilham Tohti, der sidder fængslet på livstid.
Ifølge China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group er otte personer tilbageholdt uden at deres familier ved, hvor de er.
I Kina kan en person tilbageholdes i 37 dage uden en sigtelse.
Amnesty International skriver udbyggende lørdag:
Prominent human rights lawyers Li Heping and Sui Muqing are among at least 20 people feared detained. All the individuals missing since the crackdown began on Thursday 9 July are well-known for their work on human rights cases.
The authorities have targeted lawyers across the country including in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. With new reports emerging, it is difficult to determine who has been detained by the authorities, or taken in for questioning and who may have simply gone into hiding to avoid possible detention.
“Det her må høre op”
“The authorities must end this assault against human rights lawyers. Such an unprecedented nationwide crackdown can only have been sanctioned from within the central government,” said William Nee, China Researcher at Amnesty International.
“This coordinated attack on lawyers makes a mockery of President Xi Jinping’s claims to promote the rule of law. The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those detained solely for their work defending human rights”, added he.
On Friday night, police officers visited the home of lawyer Sui Muqing in Guangdong province, southern China, according to his wife. Police then detained Sui Muqing on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles”, although they did not provide details on a specific incident or evidence.
Another lawyer in Beijing, Zhang Kai, sent a text message early on 11 July saying: “Police have come,” and he has not been heard from since.
The alarm was first raised on Thursday, when Wang Yu, a lawyer in Beijing, disappeared in the early hours, after sending friends a text message that her internet connection and power at her home had been cut off.
She then sent a text saying that people were trying to break into her home.
Amnesty International calls on the authorities to disclose the whereabouts and legal status of all those detained and guarantee unrestricted access to their families and lawyers, as well as ensure those detained are not at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
