Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China ...

<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2009)April 26, 2010• In August, the family of Liu Fengqin ( ), a 66-year-old petitioner fromTangshan City, Hebei Province, who was serving an RTL sentence for petitioning,attempted to challenge her detention through administrative litigation. When thefamily went to the district court to file the suit, the presiding judge told them that“higher authorities” had issued guidelines forbidding courts from hearing casesfiled by petitioners challenging their RTL decisions. Liu, whose health was verypoor, died in the RTL camp on September 23. 114• On July 29, a group of human rights defenders from Guiyang City, GuizhouProvince filed an administrative litigation lawsuit against the Guiyang City PSBat the Guiyang City Intermediate People’s Court. The activists alleged that theyhad suffered beatings, illegal detention and other illegal treatment at the hands ofthe police. The court told the group that the application could not be accepted刘 凤 芹because it was not in the correct format. Eventually, the court took the applicationand told the group to come back a week later. The group returned in a week, onlyto be told that the court could not accept the case because they could not file anadministrative lawsuit with diverse complaints and that they lacked the legaldocuments supporting the case, such as summons and detention warrants. Theactivists pointed out that they were suing the police partly because the policefailed to produce these documents when detaining them. 115With experiences like these, it comes as little surprise that citizens have begun toabandon the ALL system. However, should this trend continue into the future, it wouldbe damaging not only for citizens seeking resolution of administrative complaints, but forall citizens who attempt to hold government officials accountable for rights abuses.c. The right to attend public hearings, proceedings and trialsExcept for cases which involve state secrets, privacy, or juvenile defendants, hearings ofcriminal cases are open to the public. 116 Any Chinese citizen except those who are“mentally ill, drunk, or a minor without the approval of the People’s Court” can attendpublic court hearings, according to provisions issued by the Supreme People’s Court. 117However, CHRD has documented numerous cases in which policemen and court officialsprevented supporters from entering the courthouse to attend “public” hearings ofdissidents and human rights activists.Several standard explanations are given to the frustrated supporters: that they have notapplied to attend the trial beforehand, that they have been listed as “witnesses” so theycannot observe the trial unless summoned, and that the court is already full. Policemenare mobilized by local governments and, depending on the sensitivity of the case, one ormore of the following tactics are used by the police to physically prevent supporters fromattending the trial: some of the known supporters are subjected to “soft detention” athome before the trial starts; other supporters are prevented from reaching the court bycheckpoints setup on the roads leading to the court; others are taken into custody outsideof the courthouse, or threatened and assaulted if they try to enter the courthouse.30