Another ‘Hong Kong 12’ lawyer has license revoked

BEIJING – A second Chinese lawyer involved in defending a Hong Kong democracy activist charged with illegally leaving the territory said yesterday he had lost his licence.

Ren Quanniu, who represented one of 12 people caught attempting to flee Hong Kong to Taiwan by boat last August, showed a court notice revoking his right to practise.

Lu Siwei, who was served alongside Ren on the case, had his licence stripped last month.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States is “deeply concerned” about the disbarment of the two lawyers.

“We urge Beijing to respect human rights and the rule of law, and to reinstate their legal credentials at once,” he wrote on Twitter.

Ren received the notice from the Henan Justice Department after a hearing in the central province last Friday related to a 2018 case, when he represented a member of the Falun Gong, a religious group banned in mainland China.

Authorities found Ren has “disrupted the normal order of criminal proceedings” and has been “severely damaging the image of the lawyer industry and causing a negative impact on society”.

Ren said the accusations against him are “groundless”.

“If my license could be revoked in such circumstances, I think China’s legal system is dead.

“Lawyers should be clearly aware that referencing the law and facts in court may be dangerous in the future.”

Ren and Lu have both said representing the members of the so-called “Hong Kong 12” was the trigger that stripped them of the right to practise.

The 12 activists attempted to flee, after China imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong.

Some on the boat already faced prosecution for alleged crimes linked to the huge and often violent pro-democracy protests of 2019.

“Persecuted activists and critics of the government are unlikely to find any lawyer to defend their legal rights these days,” said the non-governmental organisation coalition Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

“Human rights lawyers (in China) face renewed zeal by authorities to debar them.”

More than a dozen Chinese rights lawyers have had their licenses cancelled or revoked in recent years, in what activists have said is an effective silencing by authorities.

Both lawyers faced difficulties reaching their clients in the Hong Kong 12 case, and authorities did not recognise their appointment by families of the defendants. – AFP, February 3, 2021