The second trial of the “Vicious Wiki” case was announced Friday (23), and the Guangdong Maoming court upheld the first trial verdict after lawyers and parents were banned from attending court. The lawyer and mother of the main offender, Niu Tengyu, both said they would appeal the second trial verdict. The lawyer, who was forcibly removed from the court premises by state security, accused state forces of upholding the bent verdict, and the director of the overseas “Vulgar Wiki” website questioned Xi Jinping’s backhandedness in covering up the case.
Twenty-four people and members of mainland China’s “Vulgar Wiki” website were sentenced to heavy prison terms for leaking the personal information of Xi Jinping’s daughter Xi Mingze and brother-in-law Deng Jiagui. One of the alleged “ringleaders,” Niu Tengyu, a website operator and maintainer, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
The Guangdong Maoming Intermediate Court handed down its second verdict on Friday (23), upholding the first trial verdict. Lawyers and parents were prevented from attending the trial by police and state security from around the country.
Chen Ye, the clerk of the Maoming Intermediate Court, refused to respond to our reporter’s questioning on the trial procedure and argued that the lawyers were notified to attend the sentencing long ago, but they were absent.
Chen Ye said: the public sentencing has been announced, the lawyers have been notified to come to attend the sentencing, they did not come. The results of the second trial, we have notified them in accordance with the legal procedures. If you can’t confirm your identity, we can’t just tell you, now you have any questions on your side, you call directly to ask the lawyer, okay?
Niu Tengyu’s lawyer, Bao Longjun, told the station that he and Wang Yu were forcibly taken away by state security from Tianjin before the court’s second trial verdict on Friday, and were unable to appear in court as scheduled. He also clarified that he had not received any notification from the court about the outcome of the second trial.
Bao Longjun said: “The original verdict was upheld. The state security did not allow us to go to the sentencing, the judge did not notify (the result), I kept calling Chen Ye, they did not answer. This is a national linkage, using the nation’s police force to protect a bent, evil verdict, which is a systematic defense of an evil.
Niu Tengyu’s mother was outraged by the outcome of the second trial. She accused the authorities of trampling on the law and leaving a stain on the history of the rule of law in China, and vowed to defend her son’s rights to the end.
Niu Tengyu’s mother said: “I’ve never heard of that! You said you passed the sentence, you also notified the lawyers, but as a result, the lawyers were not allowed to go, nor were the parents allowed to go, nor were the children allowed to go, who did you pass the sentence against, against the wall? You can’t trample on the law to such an extent. I definitely can’t accept this, I definitely want to defend my rights to the end. This is a wrongful case and no correction is made, which is definitely a kind of “high level blackness” for Xi Jinping.
The case was not a surprise, said Xiao Yanrui, founder of the “Vicious Wiki” website, who is currently living in Japan and was also allegedly involved in the case, but it was thought that it was just a joint effort by the local public prosecutor and the law in Maoming, Guangdong, to fabricate an unjust case.
Xiao Yanrui said: the result of the affirmation of the original verdict let us give up the illusion! At first we thought that the local police in Maoming had cheated their superiors. But after a long period of research and the information we have obtained, it confirms that China’s top brass is meddling in the case, giving it no chance at all. It shows that China doesn’t care about its international image and is still trying to force this case down to judgment. This country is already brutal and unreasonable, without the rule of law and without any human rights guarantees.
In March this year, Niu Tengyu’s mother and other rights parents had sent a joint letter to Xi Jinping, stating the grievances of the case and asking him to vindicate the 24 young people.
In May 2019, an overseas website first exposed the personal information of Xi Jinping’s daughter Xi Mingze and brother-in-law Deng Jiagui, but the Guangdong Maoming Internet Police Brigade, a member of the task force, arrested 24 people from the “Vulgar Wiki” network on the mainland, allegedly forcing them to confess under torture while in custody. The main culprit, Niu Tengyu, disclosed that he was beaten with handcuffs and a lighter to burn his genitals, among other non-tortures.
All 24 were sentenced at the end of last year, with Niu Tengyu receiving a heavy sentence of 14 years and a fine of 130,000 yuan.
In March, nine human rights officials from Western embassies in China met with Niu Tengyu’s mother and expressed great concern about the case.
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