Torture of defence lawyers as well as their clients a major problem in China, says Amnesty

Torture to extract confessions from prisoners and reprisals against defence lawyers are still widely prevalent in China despite claims that the Communist Party of China has spent the last five years trying to eradicate it, a new Amnesty International report has claimed.

Ahead of a UN committee scrutinising China’s record on torture next week, the state claimed that it “always encouraged and supported lawyers in performing their duties” and denied any “retaliation”.

But the reality is that lawyers are regularly held without charge, severely beaten, their legs strapped to a bench and raised until they are in a stress position and denied food and water in detention.

Tang Jitian, a former prosecutor and lawyer in Beijing, told Amnesty International that he was tortured by local security officials in March last year, when he and three other lawyers investigated alleged torture at a secret detention facility in Jiansanjiang, north-eastern China.

“I was strapped to an iron chair, slapped in the face, kicked on my legs and hit so hard over the head with a plastic bottle filled with water that I passed out,” he said.

Tang Jitian was later hooded, his arms handcuffed behind his back and suspended off the ground by his wrists as police beat him.

One of the problems, Amnesty reports, is that the central authorities have very little control over provincial police (PA)

Yu Wensheng, a lawyer from Beijing, was arrested in October last year and detained for 99 days by police. He told Amnesty International he was questioned approximately 200 times, with 10 public security officials assigned to interrogate him in three shifts every day. His wrists were shackled behind his back with the handcuffs deliberately set far too tight.

“My hands were swollen and I felt so much pain that I didn’t want to live. The police officers repeatedly yanked the handcuffs and I would scream,” he said.

Despite changes in the law in China from 2010 that made physical torture a crime the report No End in Sight by Amnesty, which has been sent to the UN, says that there seems to be a rise in incidence of torture in the country - particularly against defence lawyers.

In July this year, the Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on human rights lawyers and activists across the country, including in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. By the 10 July, hundreds of lawyers and activists across the country were interrogated or detained by state security forces and many offices and homes were raided.

The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, claimed the operation was aimed at destroying a “major criminal gang”.

As of 13 October, the report said, 248 lawyers and activists have been targeted in the crackdown, and 28 remain missing or in police custody.

At least 12 have been detained on state security charges and are being held in “residential surveillance in a designated place”, a particularly troubling form of detention in which detainees can be held at an undisclosed location for up to six months with no contact with the outside world - increasing the risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

“In a system where even lawyers can end up being tortured by the police, what hope can ordinary defendants have?” said Patrick Poon, a specialist on China at Amnesty.

“Papering over a justice system that is not independent, where the police remain all-powerful and where there is no recourse when the rights of the defendants are trampled upon will do little to curb the scourge of torture and ill-treatment in China.

“If the government is serious about improving human rights it must start holding law enforcement agencies to account when they commit abuses.”

"Torture remains a daily reality in China, and this is a critical moment for Beijing to answer tough questions about why this problem persists," Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch told ucanews.com.

The UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment will discuss the reports from China and interested parties on Tuesday and Wednesday next week in Geneva, Switzerland.