<\/p>\n
Lu Siwei is a Chinese lawyer specialized in financial and criminal law. He has also handled human rights cases.<\/strong>\u00a0In particular, he worked on the\u00a0Pengxi County land seizure case<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0June 4th<\/sup>\u00a0wine bottle case<\/strong>. In the latter case, human rights activists had created and shared on social networks the label of a Chinese liquor bottle stating \u201cJune 4th<\/sup>\u00a01989\u2033. It was a pun with the name of the liquor to commemorate the Tiananmen Square pro-democratic demonstrations.<\/p>\n On April 24th<\/sup>\u00a02020 the Chengdu City Lawyer\u2019s Association, a section of All China Lawyer\u2019s Association, disciplined Lu Siwei.<\/strong>\u00a0The disciplinary committee of this state agency found that Lu Siwei had \u201cviolated the rules\u201d of professional ethics and the disciplinary code.<\/p>\n The disciplinary proceedings are directed against him for representing another human rights lawyer, Chen Jiahong<\/strong>, who has been imprisoned since April 2019 for\u00a0\u201cinciting subversion of state power\u201d<\/em>. Chen Jiahong was arrested for criticising the government in a video broadcast on social networks.\u00a0 After Lu Siwei was able to visit him in December 2019, he revealed that his client had been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. Mr Jiahong told his lawyer that he had been deprived of sleep, not properly fed, but also subjected to other forms of ill-treatment in an attempt to force him to admit his guilt.<\/p>\n This written \u201cprofessional reprimand\u201d will remain on Lu Siwei\u2019s record and could have serious consequences during the lawyers\u2019 annual review.<\/strong>\u00a0Indeed, in order to practice their profession, Chinese lawyers need a licence subject to annual renewal. When renewing this licence, the judicial authorities examine the cases on which the lawyer has worked during the year. This annual inspection is frequently used to temporarily or permanently disbar lawyers defending cases considered sensitive, particularly cases involving fundamental rights. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders highlighted this practice in his\u00a0July 2019 report on impunity for abuses committed against human rights defenders.<\/a><\/p>\n In addition, Lu Siwei was arrested on December 30th<\/sup>\u00a02019 on his way to a Legal Seminar in Hong Kong. The immigration authorities then informed him that the judicial authorities had issued an exit ban against him.<\/p>\n In March 2020, a Guangxi court notified Lu Siwei that his client, lawyer Chen Jiahong, no longer wished him to pursue his defence. It is very likely that Chen Jiahong was pressured to take this decision. The Chinese authorities have on several occasions forced defendants\/detainees to renounce their initial choice of lawyer. By keeping engaged lawyers away from the courts, the authorities are gravely obstructing the rights of the defence and the right to a fair trial.\u00a0The disciplinary measures taken against Lu Siwei are a further intimidation against human rights lawyers so that they will self-censor themselves and refuse to defend cases that could be considered \u201csensitive\u201d by the Chinese authorities.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The OIAD condemns<\/strong>\u00a0the attempts to intimidate lawyers and especially the disciplinary action taken against Lu Siwei.<\/p>\n The OAID would like to remind<\/strong>\u00a0the Chinese authorities that under the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers (1990) :<\/p>\n \u201cGovernments shall ensure that lawyers (a) are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; (\u2026)\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Principle 16).<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cLawyers shall not be identified with their clients or their clients\u2019 causes as a result of discharging their functions\u201d<\/em>\u00a0(Principle 18).<\/p>\n The OIAD urges the Chinese authorities and the Chengdu City Lawyer\u2019s Association<\/strong>\u00a0to withdraw its disciplinary sanction and abandon all charges against lawyer Lu Siwei.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"listing_category":[50],"event_category":[],"service_category":[],"rental_category":[],"classifieds_category":[],"listing_feature":[],"region":[89,1995],"class_list":["post-10861","listing","type-listing","status-publish","hentry","listing_category-threatened","region-asia-en","region-china-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/10861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/listing"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10861"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/10861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21904,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing\/10861\/revisions\/21904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"listing_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_category?post=10861"},{"taxonomy":"event_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_category?post=10861"},{"taxonomy":"service_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/service_category?post=10861"},{"taxonomy":"rental_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rental_category?post=10861"},{"taxonomy":"classifieds_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/classifieds_category?post=10861"},{"taxonomy":"listing_feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/listing_feature?post=10861"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/protect-lawyers.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=10861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}