‘The smog is thick and the night dark’: China charges seven human rights lawyers with subversion

China has formally arrested on “subversion” charges at least seven human rights lawyers and colleagues held in secret for six months in a sweeping crackdown on legal activism, family and associates said Tuesday.

More than 130 attorneys and legal staff were summoned or taken away in July for questioning in what campaigners called the fiercest attempt in decades to silence activists attempting to redress injustices in China’s tightly controlled courts.

Zhou Shifeng, the founder of Beijing's Fengrui law firm, which was at the centre of the crackdown, has now been accused of “state subversion”, which carries a maximum sentence of life in jail, his colleague Liu Xiaoyuan said on a verified social media account Tuesday.

It was the first time relatives have learnt the whereabouts of the 16 lawyers and their staff, who have been held by police in undisclosed locations for months.

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The charges make it highly likely that the detainees will be tried, and face potentially lengthy jail terms.