The wife of convicted Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng has called on the international community to condemn China for conducting the trial and sentencing of her husband in secret, and to help defend his rights.

Yu’s wife, Xu Yan, said on Thursday that she had met with human rights officials from Australia, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, the European Union, the Netherlands and the United States, telling them about the secret trial and sentencing of her husband to four years in jail for subversion.

Xu asked the officials to condemn and sanction China for repeatedly conducting secret trials against rights lawyers and activists. She also demanded China to honor Yu’s rights to appeal and meet his family, and to let him do time in Beijing instead of being incarcerated in a remotely located prison.

On Wednesday, Yu, a prominent human rights lawyer in mainland China, was handed a four-year term for “inciting subversion of state power” after he penned an open letter in 2018 calling for constitutional reform. Prior to the sentencing, Yu had already been detained for more than two years for “obstructing the duties of public officers” over the same letter. His wife did not learn about the sentencing until the authorities called her on the phone.

Leo Lan, research and advocacy consultant at the Washington-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders, told Apple Daily that the secret trial and sentencing of Yu only served to reflect once again the Chinese government’s use of the law as a tool to suppress dissenting voices.

He said Yu’s family was kept in the dark about his condition throughout the lengthy detention, again showing the world how blatantly the Chinese legal system ignored human rights.

Lan’s agency, CHRD, demanded Yu’s immediate and unconditional release.

“Chinese authorities have systematically violated Yu’s legal rights under Chinese law and fair trial rights under international human rights conventions, including his rights to public trial by an independent court, his right to access a lawyer of his own or his family’s choice, and his right to protection from torture,” it said.

CHRD also urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to speak up at the upcoming 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council about “the travesty of justice in China’s persecution of lawyer Yu Wensheng and the rapidly deteriorating human rights conditions in China as the world is distracted by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

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