Yu Wensheng, a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer, published an open letter in 2018 calling for China to implement a differential election of the country’s president and abolish the military council, which would be incorporated into the Ministry of National Defense and led by the State Council. As a result, Yu was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison by the Chinese Communist Party authorities for “inciting subversion. On November 14, Yu’s wife, Xu Yan, came to the Xuzhou City Detention Center to meet with him again, and in the afternoon of the same day, the center agreed to meet with him via video. Xu Yan was thrilled to learn the news, and finally could meet with her husband after 3 years. Xu Yan said that the two met that day for about 20 minutes, Yu Wensheng was shaved head, lost three teeth, right hand trembling can not write, she saw very hard. She is now applying to be able to meet face to face with her husband, “we need to hug”.
Xu Yan, who has been actively campaigning for Yu Wensheng’s case for three years, went to the Xuzhou City Detention Center on the 14th to request a meeting with Yu Wensheng. The staff of the detention center said that two days ago, it has been determined that the new batch of prison list has Yu Wensheng’s name, before the prison is being isolated, not allowed to meet. Xu Yan asked which prison her husband would be transferred to, and the other side said they would only know two days in advance, “even if they know now, they won’t tell me”. Xu Yan questioned whether this was an excuse to continue to prevent family members from meeting with him.
Xu Yan then tweeted that she would continue to hold on to the outside of the detention center, demanding that she immediately arrange to meet with Yu Wensheng, “the epidemic is not a reason to prevent meetings, I contacted the Xuzhou City Detention Center on January 4, and there is a nucleic acid test report, why not immediately arrange a meeting before? Now I arrived at the scene and the epidemic 15 days quarantine not to meet, lawyers can meet, can also meet video, Yu Wensheng lawyers cast prison before the nucleic acid test can also continue.”
That afternoon, Xu Yan suddenly received a message from the detention center that she could meet with Yu Wensheng by video. Xu Yan tweeted, “After 3 years of insisting on so many legal rights being denied, suddenly we were allowed to meet as a couple, a little unbelievable… Suddenly the brain was dumbfounded a blank… Thank you all for your constant companionship and help”.
In an interview with “Apple”, Xu Yan said that when she learned that she was allowed to meet with her husband via video, her head was actually blank. When the couple finally met in the video, Xu Yan said she had the urge to cry because she really missed her husband. She also recalled that her husband was wearing a mask and was handcuffed, sitting in an interrogation chair, and that Yu’s right hand was still disabled, still trembling and unable to write. In addition, Yu Wensheng’s teeth have also lost three, so far no replacement, other teeth have also loosened, but the detention center did not provide treatment, Xu Yan worried that her husband’s health will deteriorate.
Xu Yan said that Yu Wensheng is very concerned about his son’s recent situation, when he learned from Xu Yan that his son’s academic performance is good, but also very happy, and expressed the request to be transferred back to Beijing to serve his sentence, and thanked the outside world for his case. Xu Yan sighed that the short 25-minute meeting with her husband was too short, after all, there were too many things to explain in the past three years. Before the end of the video, Xu Yan mentioned that she and her husband gave each other a thumbs up, and a love and a kiss. Xu Yan said she will continue to ask the authorities for a face-to-face meeting with her husband and personally give each other a hug. We need face-to-face and hugs,” she said.
According to public information, Yu Wensheng is a Beijing-based business lawyer who has represented many Falun Gong practitioners in defense cases, as well as several human rights lawyers in the “709 arrests” in 2015. On July 30 of the same year, he sued the Ministry of Public Security and its minister for “illegal arrest of citizens.
In 2018, Yu Wensheng had his lawyer’s license revoked by the authorities and was arrested for advocating constitutional reform. On April 19 of the same year, the Xuzhou City Procuratorate in Jiangsu Province officially approved his arrest on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” and “obstructing official business.
Yu’s arrest sparked widespread concern, with the embassies of the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and other countries in Beijing sending officials to visit Xu Yan and calling on the Chinese authorities to release him. Amnesty International has also called on the CCP to release him immediately, saying that Yu Wensheng is a conscientious lawyer who was detained by the authorities for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
In June 2020, the Xuzhou Intermediate Court sentenced Yu Wensheng to four years in prison and three years of deprivation of political rights for “inciting subversion of state power” in the first instance. The sentence runs from January 19, 2018, to March 1, 2022. Yu Wensheng then appealed. According to Yu Wensheng’s family, the second trial dragged on for six months without movement, only to be suddenly told last month that the verdict had been handed down.
Recent Comments