Chinese law professor hires legal team and human rights advocate to fight charge of soliciting prostitution
- Lawyer for liberal scholar and essayist Xu Zhangrun says police have not handed over evidence or records
- Letter from Tsinghua University says Xu was fired for soliciting prostitutes and publishing articles in violation of regulations
Liberal scholar Xu Zhangrun has hired two lawyers to prepare legal action against police who accused him of soliciting prostitution, one of his lawyers said.
Xu, who had taught at Tsinghua for 20 years, was sacked because of “moral corruption”, according to a dismissal letter issued by the university.
Xu has engaged Shang and Mo to represent him, according to Shang, and they would prepare to file an “administrative reconsideration” application in an attempt to overturn an administrative ruling by Chengdu police for soliciting prostitution.
Shang said Xu denied the charges and any confession was made while he was being interrogated by police.
“Xu had asked the police to show him evidence, like mobile phone records, surveillance camera footage from a hotel or bank records but the police refused,” Shang told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday.
Repeated calls to Xu were not answered on Wednesday.
Xu was taken away by police on July 6, then transferred 24 hours later and interrogated by police in Beijing’s Haidian district during a five-day detention. When he was released on July 11, the police did not give him the administrative penalty statement issued by Chengdu police over his alleged crimes.
“The police [chief of the Haidian Detention Centre] said they wanted to keep the document, or they wouldn’t let him go,” Shang said.
Shang said it would be difficult for Xu’s lawyers to submit the review application without the penalty statement.
“This is like [proving a debt] without a loan statement,” Shang said. “Xu will try to ask for the penalty statement. If he fails, then we will decide what to do next.”
Pu, a prominent human rights lawyer until he was disbarred in 2016, agreed that pressing ahead with the application without the penalty would be difficult, and even if the legal team had it, any lawsuit by a citizen against authorities could be ambitious.
“Based on my experience, it is very difficult to file administrative litigations and such applications may not be able to proceed at all,” Pu said. “Xu may need to further discuss with the lawyers about what to do next.”
At present, the only official document in Xu’s possession is the dismissal decision letter issued by Tsinghua University, which stated that Xu was fired because he was soliciting prostitutes and publishing articles in violation of regulations.
Shang said the legal team was well aware of the difficulties facing them.
“We are not confident about whether we can make the application but the least we can do is to make clear where we stand,” Shang said. “Xu has said that he cannot accept the accusation against him and we are trying to help him find justice.”
“We all knew professor Xu would be arrested one day and he has long prepared for it, but we never thought it would be for this reason,” Shang said.
