Lawyers face loss of licences after offer to Tibetans
Public proposal to act for those accused in Lhasa riots draws flak
A group of lawyers who publicly offered to act for Tibetans accused of involvement in the Lhasa riots in March say they are in danger of losing their licences to practice law.
The signatories of an open letter detailing the offer were told last month that their registration for annual renewal of their licences would be 'suspended', according to Jiang Tianyong , a Beijing-based lawyer who signed the letter.
The authorities did not say why the licences, which are due to expire at the end of this month, would not be renewed.
In all, 18 lawyers signed the April 2 letter offering to defend Tibetans accused of taking part in the unrest in Lhasa. Mainland officials accused the Tibetans of assault, arson, looting and vandalism directed at public facilities and Han Chinese.
Mr Jiang said that shortly after they issued the open letter, the Beijing Judiciary Bureau suspended licence renewals for all the lawyers at his Beijing Globe Law firm.
After some negotiating, the bureau later agreed to limit the suspension to just two lawyers who signed the letter.
Teng Biao , a signatory from another firm, said that because of him, none of his colleagues could get their licences renewed. The firm was trying to persuade the authorities to change the decision.
Mr Jiang said the official reason was that they took up 'sensitive cases', an explanation he believed referred to the offer to defend the accused rioters.
'As a lawyer, I only care about whether the case can be legally defended. I will follow the right rules within the law. I don't know how to judge whether a case is sensitive or not,' he said.
'Some of these 'sensitive' cases may look like ordinary cases until someone in a high position suddenly decides they are sensitive. Who am I to judge and how can I determine which case is normal and will not be sensitive later on?'
Mr Teng said relatives of the defendants were too afraid to come forward so the offer of legal representation was not taken up. 'The relatives of the defendants are under even bigger pressure than us. They didn't dare come to us,' he said.
The mainland media reported last month that the Lhasa Intermediate People's Court handed 30 Tibetans sentences ranging from three years to life in prison. The reports said more than 200 people attended the 'open trial' in the city, and the defendants were represented by government-appointed lawyers.
Mr Jiang said the appointment of government lawyers for the Tibetan defendants made the families and the outside world question the outcomes.
Beijing has already been under criticism for banning foreign journalists from visiting Tibet since the unrest.
Protests erupted in Lhasa on March 14, leaving 22 dead and hundreds of buildings razed, according to the authorities.
The unrest also spread to Tibetan-populated areas in Qinghai , Gansu and Sichuan . The authorities in Tibet subsequently arrested hundreds of suspects for their involvement in the protests.
Qiangba Puncog , chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region government, said this month that 403 people were arrested over the rioting.
Mr Jiang has been practising law for three years, and he has had his licence suspended previously because of his involvement in sensitive cases.
He said he was told that the bureau would not let the lawyers off easily this time because of the severity of the matter.
Mr Jiang added that he would sue the bureau and the Beijing Lawyers Association if he could not register to get his licence approved.
