Twelve Hongkongers held in mainland China after a failed illegal attempt to flee to Taiwan might have been forced to accept legal representatives appointed by the Chinese authorities and denied meetings with their own relatives and lawyers, attorneys hired by their families said.

Two lawyers engaged by the families of two of the detainees said officials at Shenzhen’s Yantian District Detention Center in Guangdong province rejected their requests to meet with the clients after a 48-hour wait.

One of them, human rights lawyer Lu Siwei, told Apple Daily that he went to the Yantian center on Tuesday, bringing along documents to prove his appointment by the family of one of the Hongkongers. He was told to wait for 48 hours, only to learn in the end that two “official” lawyers had been assigned to the detainee and that he was not allowed to see his client.

The other lawyer, who spoke to Apple Daily on condition of anonymity, encountered a similar situation, except that he was not told his job had been taken over by someone else. It was understood that the family of the detainee in this case did not hire any other lawyers, and that their son had not set foot on the mainland for over a decade and knew no one there. Their only hope was to be able to see their son again, the lawyer said.

“The authorities' goal is to keep the lawyers away,” Lu told Apple Daily. Notarization was required as proof that a lawyer had been engaged to represent a client, but the local police could not provide anything to show a legal representative had been hired according to the detainee’s will, he said.

“Does it mean they do not need any proof if those lawyers are appointed by them?” Lu said. He said he had complained to the center about being denied access to his client.

Another lawyer, Ren Quanniu, has been hired by the family of another detainee as a legal representative but the Zhengzhou legal authorities have warned him, asking him to withdraw from the case. He told Apple Daily that he could still withstand the pressure at the moment and would not drop the case.

“But if the authorities go out of their way to threaten me over this, I might not be able to continue with this case. It will depend on the level of pressure I can endure. I want to persist for as long as I can,” Ren said.

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