Lawyers hired by families of Hongkongers arrested at sea say mainland Chinese authorities appointing legal counsel, pressuring them to drop cases
- ‘The matters these people are involved with are too huge,’ one lawyer says he was told by Henan province officials asking him to drop his client
- Another lawyer, based in Chengdu, says no legal representatives have managed to establish contact with clients in two weeks since arrests
Mainland Chinese authorities have appointed lawyers for one of the 12 Hongkongers currently detained in Shenzhen without notifying the legal counsel designated by her family, and requested that at least two others representing detainees walk away from the cases.
The involved lawyers on Wednesday criticised the moves as part of an ongoing attempt to prevent them and other family-appointed legal representatives from contacting the detainees. They were arrested at sea by the mainland Chinese coastguard on August 23 as they reportedly attempted to flee to Taiwan.
[They have] deprived me of my right to meet my client. I demand they let me exercise my rights as soon as possible. I feel extremely powerless
One of the two mainland lawyers asked to quit the case quoted officials as saying “the matters these people are involved with are too huge”, while sources familiar with the situation said another Shenzhen-based lawyer had dropped his client after succumbing to similar pressure.
Another lawyer, Lu Siwei, who is based in Chengdu, said he was unable to meet his client on Wednesday, and that none of the other legal representatives involved had managed to do so in the two weeks since the arrests.
The lawyer told the Post:“[They have] deprived me of my right to meet my client. I demand they let me exercise my rights as soon as possible. I feel extremely powerless.”
Lu first attempted to reach his client, a woman with a surname pronounced “Kiu” or “Qiao”, at the detention centre in Shenzhen’s Yantian district last Friday, where officers demanded notarised documents confirming the identity of the suspect’s brother, who had contacted the lawyer for help.
On Wednesday afternoon, he returned with the required paperwork, only for officers to ask him to leave, saying they would tell him within 48 hours if the meeting would be permitted.
Lu said one of the officers contacted him just two hours later, denying him access and saying the authorities had already hired two other lawyers for the woman.
Woman among 12 Hongkongers in sea arrest ‘denied right to meet lawyer’
“I immediately raised that I have the right to verify [with my client] whether this is true,” he said. “But the two officers just returned the documents to me and left without giving me a reply.”
Lu vowed he would not give up the case, saying he planned to complain in person to the Yantian Public Security Bureau and the Yantian People’s Procuratorate over the unusual practice.
Another mainland human rights lawyer also denied access to those detained, Ren Quanniu, told the Post that local authorities in Henan province had asked him to quit the case on Wednesday.
He quoted them as saying: “The matters these people are involved with are too huge”.
Ren received the latest notification while the family of his client was preparing notarised documents required by the Public Security Bureau. Officers at the detention facility denied him access on Monday, citing a lack of documents confirming the identity of his client’s mother.
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“The detention centre said they were acting in accordance with the law, but in fact, there is no such provision under the Criminal Procedure Law. It’s not legal,” Ren said.
“[Lu’s unsuccessful attempt] means the authorities are making things difficult on purpose and wasting the family’s money and efforts.”
He said he had no intention of giving up the case for now, adding that he and other lawyers might make last-ditch efforts to visit the detention centre again to ask for access.
Lawyers earlier expressed concerns that the matter could be more serious than one of “illegally crossing the national border”, as police officers investigating the case told them their clients could be investigated in relation to organising others to cross unlawfully.
Under China’s Criminal Law, people arrested for illegal crossings face imprisonment of not more than a year. But those convicted of organising others to do so can be sentenced to as many as seven years in jail. For those with a principal role in operating a syndicate or who violently resist law enforcement, the penalty can be life in prison.
Police seek mainland Chinese help in return of suspects tied to criminal cases
The family members of two suspects on Wednesday told local newspaper Apple Daily they hoped Hong Kong authorities could help facilitate a meeting between the detainees and their appointed lawyers as soon as possible and arrange for them to face trial at home.
Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun, a lawyer, said if the suspects were found to have had no intention to enter the mainland and commit crimes, they should be handled in the same fashion as previous cases and sent back to the city.
Some of the group of 12 have been linked to criminal cases connected to last year’s anti-government protests, including three who were charged over an alleged bomb plot to kill Hong Kong police officers on December 8.
The court earlier heard that the family of Open University student Cheung Chun-fu, 22, had no prior knowledge of his going missing.
Additional reporting by Kanis Leung
