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Three Chinese lawyers still trying to meet detained Hongkongers as others drop out

蘋果日報 2020/09/18 06:45


At least three mainland Chinese lawyers were still attempting to visit their Hong Kong clients, who were part of a group of 12 Hongkongers arrested in mainland waters attempting to flee to Taiwan.
Five lawyers appointed by family members have since pulled out of the case due to pressure from mainland authorities.
The 12 Hongkongers — allegedly linked to anti-government protests — were caught by the Guangdong coast guard in late August and have since been held at the Yantian detention center in Shenzhen. Their family members had appointed Chinese lawyers to visit them in custody, but so far no attempts have been successful.
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A lawyer recently tried to go to Shenzhen to meet his client, but was warned by local police to drop the case and stop taking media interviews, and he believed that he would be followed by national security agents, the man told Hong Kong public broadcaster RTHK.
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Two other lawyers made plans to go to Shenzhen next week, but one of them has received three demands from the local Judicial Bureau, which told him to open a file for the case at the bureau, stop taking media requests and creating publicity for the case, according to RTHK.
The lawyer told RTHK that the detention center had hired other lawyers for his client and did not allow him to visit. He believed that the notarial certification from his client — demanded by mainland authorities to prove he had been hired — was unnecessary, and his client’s family members would not apply for the expensive document. His trip to Shenzhen would be an attempt to test the authorities' reactions, he said.
Lu Siwei, another lawyer hired by one of the group’s family members, has filed a complaint to the Yantian district prosecutorial office after he was barred from visiting his client.
Chinese legal system expert Jerome Cohen wrote in an opinion piece published in The Diplomat that the frustration experienced by the 12 Hongkongers is “typical of the experience faced by many in encounters with the Chinese criminal justice system.”
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Cohen, who is the Faculty Director Emeritus of New York University’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute, said the lawyers appointed by the authorities would follow government and Communist Party orders and “merely decorate court proceedings.”
Noting reports of lawyers being warned to drop the case, Cohen said if they persisted, then they risked a refusal to renew their annual license to practice, permanent disbarment, closing of their entire law firm, and even criminal punishment.
Democratic Party lawmaker James To has urged the Marine Department to reveal the exact location where the 12 were caught, to clarify whether they were arrested within Hong Kong waters.
Lawmaker Eddie Chu launched a campaign asking Hongkongers to write up to 30,000 postcards for the detained 12, and about 200 postcards had been written at a street stand, which started on Thursday evening.
An education sector worker who gave her name as Leung said she was saddened by the case of the 12 and wished to write in support. “Their fate is akin to that of us Hong Kong people,” she said.
Although she understood that the postcards may not reach them, she wished the 12 to know that the people would carry on with the movement. “I hope we can meet again, even if it takes 10 or 20 years,” she said.
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