“12 Hong Kong people” lawyer Ren Quanniu was suspended from the lawyer’s license

“Ren Quanniu, a mainland Chinese human rights lawyer in the 12 Hong Kong people case, has had his license revoked. This follows the revocation of the license of another lawyer in the case, Lu Siwei.

The “12 Hong Kong people case”, in which 12 young people from Hong Kong were intercepted and arrested by Chinese marine police on their way to Taiwan by speedboat in August last year, has attracted a lot of attention in Hong Kong and internationally, as the 12 Hong Kong people involved were detained at Yantian Detention Center in Shenzhen.

Lawyer Ren Quanniu said in a statement Tuesday (Feb. 2) that his lawyer’s license was revoked that day by the Henan Department of Justice. The lawyer’s license of Lu Siwei, another lawyer representing him in the case, was revoked by the Sichuan judicial department on Jan. 15.

The Henan Judicial Department issued a notice on Feb. 2 deciding to revoke Ren Quanniu’s lawyer’s license. The reason for the revocation was that on Nov. 7, 2018, Ren Quanniu “repeatedly denied the nature of the state-identified cult” when defending a case of “using a cult to undermine the implementation of the law,” in violation of the relevant provisions of the Measures for the Administration of Lawyer Practice. The notice found that Ren Quanniu had “seriously denied the nature of the cult as determined by the state” and violated the relevant provisions of the “Regulations Governing the Practice of Law. The notice found that Ren Quanniu had “seriously damaged the image of the lawyer profession and caused bad social influence”.

Ren Qunniu told the media that he believed the real reason for revoking his license was because he represented the 12 Hong Kong people and Zhang Zhan cases. Both of these cases were highly sensitive and attention-grabbing.

Ren Quanniu and Lu Siwei, two lawyers, were hired by the families of the people involved in the cases to provide legal assistance to them. The Chinese authorities had prevented the families from appointing their own lawyers and tried to get them to accept government-appointed lawyers. Both Ren Quanniu and Lu Siwei accepted the assignment. The authorities forced them to withdraw and they refused.

Ren Quanniu is also a defense attorney in the case of citizen journalist Zhang Zhan. Zhang Zhan went to Wuhan last year to cover the truth about the Epidemic, and the authorities accused her of “speculating on the epidemic. Zhang was sentenced to four years in prison by a Shanghai court on Dec. 28 last year for picking quarrels and provoking trouble.

In a statement, Ren Quanniu said that the 10 years from the Time he received his lawyer’s license in 2010 to the time it was revoked on Feb. 2 of this year were “a golden decade for him to change his outlook and values. He told Radio Free Asia that he did not regret serving as a case for 12 Hong Kong people.

The Associated Press reporter called the Henan Provincial Department of Justice, and the official who answered refused to comment on the case of Ren Quanniu’s license suspension, saying they do not deal directly with the media.