Since mid February six Chinese lawyers: Teng Biao, Jiang Tianyong, Li Tiantian, Liu Shihui, Tang Jingling and Liu Zhengqing have disappeared, presumably detained by the authorities. In all but one of these cases their families do not know where they are being held. None of the detentions has been acknowledged by the Chinese authorities and none of the detainees is able to see a lawyer. Reliable information is circulating that the lawyer Tang Jitian (who was detained on the 16th February and sent from Beijing to house arrest in his home town in Jilin around the 5th March) was tortured while he was held in Beijing. We believe that the continued incommunicado detention of Tang’s colleagues places them at serious risk of torture.

Secret and unacknowledged detentions beyond a couple of days are against international law. Experience from around the world demonstrates that incommunicado detention places detainees at serious risk of torture. The UN General Assembly has declared that “prolonged incommunicado detention”, like “detention in secret places”, facilitates the perpetration of torture and other ill-treatment and can in itself constitute a form of such treatment.

The Rights Practice is deeply concerned by this increased use of extrajudicial detentions and the implication that this is part of a new trend in dealing with legal activism and dissenting opinions in China. We continue to support serious efforts by many leading legal scholars, lawyers and officials in China to strengthen human rights protection in the treatment of detained persons. However, enhanced protection needs to apply to everyone in detention and nothing can ever justify the use of torture. We urge the Chinese authorities to inform their families where they are being detained and to provide those detained with prompt access to lawyers.

Related Links:
Disappeared Lawyers: Update