About 50 human rights lawyers and law firm staff held in Chinese police crackdown
Widespread detentions started after lawyers across the mainland issued joint statement protesting against disappearance of crusading lawyer Wang Yu, say rights groups
Mainland police have launched a large-scale, unprecedented crackdown on human rights lawyers in the past two days – detaining dozens of lawyers and law firm staff and searching some of their homes and offices, while other people have disappeared, fellow lawyers and three rights groups say.
Up to noon on Saturday, 47 people – 42 lawyers, four law firm employees, plus one member of a rights lawyer’s family – across 15 cities and provinces had been taken away, summoned or detained by police, said Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group.
The rights group Chinese Human Rights Defenders documented 57 lawyers and rights activists that had been detained, summoned or disappeared since Friday morning.
One of them, Guangzhou-based lawyer Sui Muqing, was placed under "residential surveillance at a designated location" -- a form of detention -- for alleged "incitement to subvert state power" late on Saturday, according to a police document given to his family.
Amnesty International said that by Saturday evening 28 people detained in the crackdown, including Wang Yu’s teenage son, had been released.
The crackdown started after lawyer Wang Yu, known for her courage in taking on difficult human rights cases, went missing in the early hours of Thursday. More than 100 lawyers across the country issued a joint statement on Friday protesting about her disappearance. Many of its signatories were detained late on Friday night and early on Saturday.