By Sui-Lee Wee
BEIJING, May 18 (Reuters) – The nephew of blind activist
Chen Guangcheng has been denied his family’s choice of lawyers
to defend a charge of “intentional homicide” in what one said
was an attempt to manipulate a trial that has focused world
attention on China’s human rights.
The decision by police in Yinan in northeastern Shandong
province is the latest in a series of moves to deny Chen Kegui
legal representation and underscores the hardline stance taken
against the family of Chen Guangcheng.
Chen Guangcheng’s escape from house arrest last month and
subsequent refuge in the U.S. embassy caused huge embarrassment
for China and led to a diplomatic crisis in Sino-U.S. relations.
The ruling Communist Party has always been wary of lawyers,
who officials suspect could challenge its power through their
advocacy of the rule of law. Authorities have frequently sought
to prevent lawyers from taking up politically sensitive cases by
suspending their licences or threatening them.
Chen Kegui, in his early 30s, could face the death penalty
if found guilty of using knives to fend off local officials who
burst into his home on April 27, the day after they discovered
his blind uncle had escaped house arrest.
Police told Ding Xikui, one of his team of lawyers, that
Chen Kegui had been appointed two lawyers from the Yinan
government-run legal aid centre, Ding told Reuters by telephone
from Shandong.
“They told us: ‘According to Chinese law, a criminal suspect
can only be commissioned two lawyers. Two have been assigned to
him, so both of you can’t be his lawyers’,” said Ding, who
represented jailed Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo at his 2009
subversion trial.
“NO REAL DEFENCE”
Police and the legal aid centre in Yinan were not
immediately available for comment.
“This shows that the authorities in Linyi and the forces
behind it are attempting to manipulate the case behind the
scenes,” said Jiang Tianyong, one of the members of the legal
team of more than a dozen lawyers who have volunteered to defend
Chen Kegui.
“Chen Kegui will not be able to get a real defence, and the
outside world will not be able to know the progress of the
case,” he said. “In this way, the fate of Chen Kegui will
entirely be up to the authorities.”
Another of Chen Kegui’s lawyers, Si Weijiang, said he called
the Yinan legal aid centre, which told him “they have no idea
about the case”.
In recent weeks, Chinese authorities have thwarted plans by
other lawyers to meet Chen Kegui and warned others not to get
involved, according to lawyer Liu Weiguo.
No family member or lawyer has been allowed to see Chen
Kegui, who is held in a detention centre in Yinan, making the
lawyers feel “powerless”, Si said.
Chen Guangcheng said on Friday that authorities in Shandong
had threatened his elder brother, Chen Guangfu, saying that they
would increase Chen Kegui’s sentence if Chen Guangfu accepts
media interviews.
In a videotaped interview with Hong Kong online magazine
iSun Affairs uploaded on Wednesday, Chen Guangfu described his
torture by plainclothes men after Chen Guangcheng’s escape.
The United States has appealed to China to let Chen
Guangcheng travel to the United States to study. He said he
applied for a passport on Wednesday and that he should get a
reply within 15 days.
Chen Guangcheng earlier told Reuters that his nephew was the
victim of vengeance by officials incensed at the blind
dissident’s escape.
“They’re simply thugs,” said Liu Weiguo, when asked why he
thought the authorities had denied Chen Kegui access to the two
lawyers. “They’re doing this to cover up the truth about the
persecution of Chen Guangcheng.”
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Beijing Newsroom;
Editing by Nick Macfie)
