Chinese rights lawyer held for over a year without trial refused bail after court postpones case for three months
Prominent Chinese rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, who has been detained for more than a year without trial, has been denied bail after a court postponed his trial for three months, his lawyer said this week.
Mo Shaoping said the Beijing No.2 Intermediate Court told him more than a week ago that his application for police to release Pu on bail was rejected.
Pu was detained by the police in May last year initially on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after attending an event marking the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The police later slapped three more charges on him, accusing him of “inciting ethnic hatred”, “inciting separatism” and “illegally obtaining personal information”.
Four months ago, the Beijing People’s Procuratorate’s second branch charged Pu with “inciting ethnic hatred” and “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, having dropped the other two charges. His lawyers said at the time he still faces up to eight years in jail.
Pu’s alleged crimes were said by the authorities to be serious because he posted messages on his microblog to “incite ethnic hatred” and “openly insult others” and his acts “damaged social order”.