Taipei: A second Chinese lawyer who represented a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist was stripped of his license on Tuesday as Beijing makes an attempt to crush opposition to its tighter management over the territory.
Ren Quanniu, who represented considered one of 12 Hong Kong activists who tried to flee to Taiwan, stated he had his license revoked by the Henan Provincial Justice Department.
Ten of the 12 activists caught at sea in August had been sentenced by a Shenzhen court docket in December to jail phrases ranging from seven months to 3 years for crossing the border illegally and organizing the crossings. The two different activists are minors.
Thousands of Hong Kong residents have fled the territory since Beijing’s imposition of a troublesome new safety regulation that some say is destroying the territory’s Western-style civil liberties. Since the regulation was launched in response to anti-government protests that started in 2019, dozens of pro-democracy activists have been arrested or detained.
The Henan Judicial Department held a listening to on the license revocation on Friday in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, in accordance with different attorneys who turned as much as assist Ren. They weren’t allowed into the listening to.
Ren is the second lawyer to have his license stripped by the authorities for dealing with the activists’ case. Two weeks in the past, judicial officers in Sichuan took away the license of Lu Siwei, one other lawyer on the case.
The US expressed concern over the choice to revoke the licenses of each attorneys. “We’re deeply involved by the People’s Republic of China’s makes an attempt to disbar and harass human rights attorneys Lu Siwei and Ren Quanniu for representing the Hong Kong 12,” stated a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department in a press release issued on Twitter on Wednesday.
Ren has years of expertise in dealing with politically human rights circumstances in China. He has defended folks affiliated with the Falun Gong, a non secular motion which China has labelled a cult and is the topic of persecution after its followers protested in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1999.
Most just lately, he represented citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who was sentenced to 4 years in jail final December for making an attempt to report on the scenario within the metropolis of Wuhan throughout the onset of the coronavirus pandemic early final 12 months.
