Mainland China human rights lawyer hired to represent Hong Kong fugitive accuses authorities of ‘framing’ him to revoke licence
- Ren Quanniu was one of two lawyers involved in the cases of the 12 Hong Kong fugitives to be threatened with disbarment
- The threat stemmed from a two-year-old case in which Ren represented a member of Falun Gong
A mainland Chinese lawyer hired by the family of one of the Hong Kong fugitives recently jailed in Shenzhen has accused authorities of “framing” him over another case as a pretext for revoking his licence.
Zhengzhou-based Ren Quanniu broke his silence one day after he and another outspoken lawyer, Lu Siwei, received letters from separate provincial judicial agencies saying that their licences could be revoked in as little as three days if they did not request a hearing on the decision.
Without mentioning Ren’s involvement in the Hongkongers’ case, the Henan Provincial Department of Justice said in its letter that the lawyer faced disbarment over his handling of a 2018 case in which he represented a member of Falun Gong, a spiritual group regarded by Chinese authorities as a “cult organisation”.
In a statement on Tuesday, Ren said all the views he had expressed in court relating to the Falun Gong case were legal and well-founded.
“The authorities’ accusations that I made adverse impacts to society is purely shameless framing,” he said. “The punishment is entirely a persecution of the profession.”
The human rights lawyer said the provincial judicial agency had no jurisdiction to revoke his licence, and demanded they apologise and immediately “rectify the mistake”.