Translated from the original Chinese article published in the “Forum” section of Mingpao on 25 June 2009
At the 20th anniversary of the 4 June Massacre, at least about 20 mainland human rights lawyers could not pass the annual “assessment and registration”. Some lawyers even revealed that about 90 law firms and a thousand lawyers in Beijing had not yet passed the “assessment and registration”, which meant that they could not get their practising license renewed. They believed that their failure to pass the “assessment” was due to their representation in human rights cases. Meanwhile, several Beijing human rights lawyers who did not pass the “assessment”, including Tang Jitian (唐吉田), Li Xiongbing (黎雄兵) and Jiang Tianyong (江天勇), were unreasonably detained or under surveillance in a few days. These lawyers were seemingly regarded as “undesirable elements” against the government. 閱讀全文 more
Note: The following is a report by Epoch Times about a thousand petitioners who demonstrated at Beijing South Railway Station on 20 June 2009 to protest against the Chinese government’s suppression of human rights lawyers who still could not pass the “annual assessment and annual registration” of their legal practice license. The youmaker.com video clip of the protest posted on Abolouwang (http://www.youmaker.com/video/sv?id=9493ebf7121e421ab92b952712c02ab2001) shows how much the petitioners appreciate the support they have got from the lawyers. In return, with this action, they wanted to show their support for the lawyers at a time of great crisis. If human rights lawyers are not allowed to continue their selfless and urgently needed work for the underprivileged and the suppressed, this will spell a crisis for the entire legal system. We have translated the Epoch Times report into English below.閱讀全文 more