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Human rights in China
ChinaPolitics

Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang petitions to overturn subversion verdict

  • Wang says he has no confidence that the justice system will listen to his plea but ‘the law is the law’
  • Five years after the 709 crackdown, the state of civil rights has worsened, he says

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Lawyer Wang Quanzhang is seeking to have his conviction for subversion overturned. Photo: Handout
Guo Rui

Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang has filed a petition with the Chinese judiciary seeking to overturn his guilty verdict of subversion against the state, saying it was fabricated and based on a false accusation.

Wang has also filed suits against individual police and court officials who handled his case for wrongful trial, defamation and torture.

Wang, who was released in April after being held for nearly five years, wrote about the petition on social media on Thursday – the fifth anniversary of a sweeping campaign against human rights lawyers and activists known as the “709 crackdown”. In July 2015, more than 200 lawyers and associates were rounded up by police on wide-ranging charges from subversion, to attacking the Communist Party and fraud.
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Wang said his petition accused the court system in the megacity of Tianjin, where he was held and later tried, of acting illegally in his detention and trials. He said justice officials ignored evidence and broke the law in holding him incommunicado for over a year before putting him on trial.

Due to pandemic travel restrictions, Wang, who was reunited with his family in Beijing, mailed his petition to the courts in Tianjin and authorities in Beijing.

03:08

Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang reunites with family

Chinese human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang reunites with family

Wang said the case of subversion against him was based on allegations that he and other lawyers challenged police in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang in 2014 over a civil liberty case.

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