Lawyers’ outrage at Chinese jail term

The Australian Law Council has called on the government to intervene over China’s treatment of a human rights lawyer.

Human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, pictured with his wife Li Wenzu and their son before his 2015 arrest, has been sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. Picture: Wang Quanxiu

The Australian Law Council has called on the Morrison government to urgently intervene over China’s treatment of prominent human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who was reportedly sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment at a closed-court trial in China on Boxing Day.

Wang is one of an estimated 300 lawyers who were rounded up across China for representing so-called enemies of the state during President Xi Jinping’s “709” crackdown in July 2015.

The 42-year-old lawyer was the last prominent detainee who had not been sentenced or released. He has been refused any contact with his family or legal representatives for the past three years, despite growing international pressure to release him.

His wife, Li Wenzu, who is currently under house arrest, has publicly accused the Chinese government of punishing her husband for refusing to show public remorse like some of his colleagues who were released after giving public confessions on state television.

Wang’s sudden appearance at China’s Tianjin’s Intermediate Court No 2 on December 26 sparked clashes outside the court after his supporters, as well as diplomats from Britain, Switzerland and Germany, were refused entry.

The charges against Wang ­included “seriously harming the country’s security and social stability” and “maliciously inciting” opposition to the government, which carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The verdict on the one-day trial has yet to be publicly ­announced. But according to ­reports in AsiaNews yesterday, Wang has been sentenced to 15 years’ jail for providing legal representation to enemies of the state, including the banned ­organisation Falun Gong.

The Australian Law Council yesterday joined the chorus of international protest from human rights groups and legal bodies, including Amnesty International, which this week described the trial as a “sham” and a “cruel charade”.

In a letter to Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne, the council implored the Australian government to make “diplomatic representations to China as a matter of urgency”.

The council’s president-elect, Arthur Moses, said: “Legal representation must be available to every citizen, not just the powerful or the popular. Sometimes lawyers are called upon to act for unpopular persons or persons who a government alleges to have broken the law.

“These lawyers should not be regarded as subversive or promoting the law being broken by merely representing a person who is accused of such matters.”

Mr Moses told The Australian the council had “grave concerns” China had violated the UN-backed rights of lawyers to represent clients who were critical of governments “without fear of reprisals or intimidation”.