- Update info:
- 25 Mar 2024
- Latest info:
- 25 Feb 2021 (Updated)
- 27 Jan 2021 (Updated)
- 28 Aug 2020 (Updated)
- 2 Mar 2019 (Updated)
- 9 Apr 2018
- Country:
- PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
- Subject:
- Yu Wensheng
Gender m/f: m - Period:
- 30 Apr 2024
- Distribution date:
- 9 Apr 2018
- UA No:
- 019/2018
Beijing lawyer Yu Wensheng has been detained for more than two months without access to a lawyer of his choice. While the Public Security Bureau in Jiangsu province have admitted that they are holding him, his exact whereabouts are unknown. He is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
Yu Wensheng’s lawyers have not been allowed to meet him since he was taken away by police in Beijing on 19 January 2018 while taking his son to school. No further information about his current situation has been provided since 27 January when the Tongshan District Public Security Bureau in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, issued a notice to his family stating that Yu Wensheng was being held under “residential surveillance in a designated location”.
A week after the notice was issued, on 5 February, lawyers went to ask the public security officers at Tongshan District Public Security Bureau if they could meet with Yu Wensheng. The public security officers rejected their request, claiming that the case involves “endangering national security”. Another request by lawyers made on 23 February was also rejected.
On 24 February, Yu Wensheng’s wife Xu Yan, was blocked from crossing the border from the Lowu checkpoint in Shenzhen to Hong Kong. The police told her that it was based on an order from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, claiming that allowing her to leave the country might endanger national security.
According to the People’s Republic of China Criminal Procedural Law, police can deny all access to lawyers’ for up to six months in cases which they claim involve “endangering national security”, further increasing the risk of torture and other ill-treatment. Yu Wensheng is a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
On 15 January 2018, four days before he was taken away by police in this current detention, Yu Wensheng received a letter from the Beijing Municipal Justice Bureau that his legal practice license was suspended because he had not been employed by a registered law firm for over six months. He also received another letter from the bureau dated 12 January that his application for opening a new law firm was rejected as he repeatedly made comments opposing the Communist Party’s rule and attacking the country’s “socialist rule of law” system.
Yu Wensheng is a prominent human rights lawyer in Beijing. He represented a number of high profile human rights cases, including Falun Gong practitioners and fellow human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who was detained and charged with “subverting state power” during the mass crackdown on lawyers and activists in July 2015 and the only one whose whereabouts still remain unknown.
Yu Wensheng was detained for 99 days in 2014, later sharing with Amnesty International that he had been tortured during that time. On 13 October 2014, he was arrested by Daxing Public Security Bureau in Beijing after showing his support for the prodemocracy protests in Hong Kong. He was detained with death row inmates for 61 days and questioned approximately 200 times. Refused access to a lawyer during that detention, Yu Wensheng had 10 public security officers assigned to question him in three shifts every day. At the beginning the officers only abused him verbally. Later, they handcuffed him with his hands bound behind the back of the iron chair. He felt that his body’s muscles and bone joints were completely stretched. He said that two police officers repeatedly yanked the handcuffs and he screamed every time they pulled them.
Yu Wensheng was briefly detained again in October 2017 after he wrote an open letter criticizing President Xi Jinping as ill-suited to lead China due to his strengthening “totalitarian” rule over the country. His family and friends believed that Yu Wensheng’s current detention is related to his open letter.
On 23 January 2018, Shanghai-based news website The Paper released a news report with a heavily and abruptly edited video claiming that a lawyer surnamed Yu assaulted two police officers while resisting arrest on 19 January. The report was widely circulated on news search portals and social media platforms in China as Yu Wensheng’s name was mentioned in tweets and posts from unidentified social media accounts. It seems to be an attempt to discredit the lawyer using similar tactics that have been seen in other cases of detained lawyers and activists.
The detention of lawyer Wang Yu and her family on 9 July 2015 marked the beginning of an unprecedented government crackdown on human rights lawyers and other activists. Over the following weeks, almost 250 lawyers and activists were questioned or detained by state security agents, and many of their offices and homes were raided. As of December 2017, nine individuals had been convicted for “subverting state power”, “inciting subversion of state power” or “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. Five of them remain imprisoned, three were given suspended prison sentences and one “exempted from criminal punishment” while remaining under surveillance. Lawyer Wang Quanzhang who has been indicted but awaits a trial, is being held incommunicado without access to a lawyer, and is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment.
Further information on UA: 19/18 Index: ASA 17/8106/2018 Issue Date: 21 March 2018
- Update info:
- 25 Mar 2024 (Updated)
- Latest info:
- 25 Feb 2021 (Updated)
- 27 Jan 2021 (Updated)
- 28 Aug 2020 (Updated)
- 2 Mar 2019 (Updated)
- 9 Apr 2018
- Country:
- PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
- Subject:
- Yu Wensheng (he, his, him)
- Period:
- 30 Apr 2024
- Distribution date:
- 2 Mar 2019
- UA No:
- 019/2018
Beijing human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng has been indicted and his case has been transferred from the prosecution to the court awaiting a trial date, according to his wife. No official notification about the indictment nor transfer has been received. With no access to his lawyers since his detention in January 2018, there are fears that he is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Yu Wensheng is a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression and should be immediately and unconditionally released.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Yu Wensheng is a prominent human rights lawyer in Beijing. He represented a number of high profile human rights cases, including Falun Gong practitioners and fellow human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who was detained and charged with “subverting state power” during the mass crackdown on lawyers and activists starting in July 2015, and who was sentenced to four and a half years’ imprisonment on 28 January 2019 after having been detained for nearly two and a half years.
Yu Wensheng was formally arrested by the Xuzhou City Public Security Bureau (XCPSB) on 19 April 2018 on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” and “obstructing the duties of public officers”. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment for the charge of “inciting subversion of state power”.
On 15 January 2018, four days before he was taken away by police, Yu Wensheng received a letter from the Beijing Municipal Justice Bureau that his legal practice license was suspended because he had not been employed by a registered law firm for over six months. He also received another letter from the bureau, dated 12 January 2018, that his application for opening a new law firm was rejected as he repeatedly made comments opposing the Communist Party’s rule and attacking the country’s “socialist rule of law” system.
Yu Wensheng was already detained for 99 days in 2014, later sharing with Amnesty International that he had been tortured during that time. On 13 October 2014, he was arrested by Daxing Public Security Bureau in Beijing after showing his support for the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. He told Amnesty International that he was held with death row inmates for 61 days and questioned approximately 200 times. Refused access to a lawyer during that detention, Yu Wensheng had 10 public security officers assigned to question him in three shifts every day. At the beginning, the officers only abused him verbally. Later, they handcuffed him with his hands bound behind the back of the iron chair. He felt that his body’s muscles and bone joints were completely stretched. He said that two police officers repeatedly yanked the handcuffs and he screamed every time they pulled them.
Yu Wensheng was briefly detained again in October 2017 after he wrote an open letter criticizing President Xi Jinping as ill-suited to lead China due to his strengthening “totalitarian” rule over the country. His family and friends believe that Yu Wensheng’s current detention is related to this open letter.
On 23 January 2018, Shanghai-based news website The Paper released a news report with a heavily and abruptly edited video claiming that a lawyer surnamed Yu assaulted two police officers while resisting arrest on 19 January. The report was widely circulated on news search portals and social media platforms in China as Yu Wensheng’s name was mentioned in tweets and posts from unidentified social media accounts. According to his friends and supporters, it seems to be an attempt to discredit the lawyer using similar tactics that have been seen in other cases of detained lawyers and activists.
The detention of lawyer Wang Yu and her family on 9 July 2015 marked the beginning of an unprecedented government crackdown on human rights lawyers and other activists. Over the following weeks, almost 250 lawyers and activists were questioned or detained by state security agents, and many of their offices and homes were raided. As of December 2017, nine individuals had been convicted for “subverting state power”, “inciting subversion of state power” or “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. Five of them remain in prison, three were given suspended prison sentences and one was “exempted from criminal punishment” while remaining under surveillance. A tenth person, lawyer Wang Quanzhang, was sentenced to four a half years’ imprisonment on 28 January 2019.
PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: Chinese, English.
You can also write in your own language.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 5 April 2019
Please check with the Amnesty office in your country if you wish to send appeals after the deadline.
LINK TO PREVIOUS UA: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/8295/2018/en/
- Update info:
- 25 Mar 2024 (Updated)
- Latest info:
- 25 Feb 2021 (Updated)
- 27 Jan 2021 (Updated)
- 28 Aug 2020 (Updated)
- 2 Mar 2019 (Updated)
- 9 Apr 2018
- Country:
- PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
- Subject:
- Yu Wensheng (he, his, him)
- Period:
- 30 Apr 2024
- Distribution date:
- 28 Aug 2020
- UA No:
- 019/2018
- Update info:
- 25 Mar 2024 (Updated)
- Latest info:
- 25 Feb 2021 (Updated)
- 27 Jan 2021 (Updated)
- 28 Aug 2020 (Updated)
- 2 Mar 2019 (Updated)
- 9 Apr 2018
- Country:
- PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
- Subject:
- Yu Wensheng (he, his, him)
- Period:
- 30 Apr 2024
- Distribution date:
- 27 Jan 2021
- UA No:
- 019/2018
- Update info:
- 25 Mar 2024 (Updated)
- Latest info:
- 25 Feb 2021 (Updated)
- 27 Jan 2021 (Updated)
- 28 Aug 2020 (Updated)
- 2 Mar 2019 (Updated)
- 9 Apr 2018
- Country:
- PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
- Subject:
- Yu Wensheng (he, his, him)
- Period:
- 30 Apr 2024
- Distribution date:
- 25 Feb 2021
- UA No:
- 019/2018
- Update info:
- 25 Mar 2024 (Updated)
- Latest info:
- 25 Feb 2021 (Updated)
- 27 Jan 2021 (Updated)
- 28 Aug 2020 (Updated)
- 2 Mar 2019 (Updated)
- 9 Apr 2018
- Country:
- PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
- Subject:
- Yu Wensheng (he/him) & Xu Yan (she/her)
- Period:
- 30 Apr 2024
- Distribution date:
- 25 Mar 2024
- UA No:
- 019/2018