Chinese human rights lawyer’s wife accused Beijing of intentionally prolonging his detention

Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng has been detained by the Chinese government for two and a half years, and a year ago, he was sentenced in a secret trial. However, his wife Xu Yen hasn’t received any information about the sentences or his whereabouts. In an interview, Xu accused the Chinese government of intentionally prolonging the detention of Yu and described the treatment as “extremely inhumane and cruel.” She vowed not to give up on speaking up for Yu until he is released.

Question: It has been a year since Yu went through the secret trial. What are some of the latest information that you’ve gathered about his case?

Xu Yen: It’s been almost 900 days since my husband was detained, and it has also been a year since his secret trial took place. It is very rare for human rights lawyers to go through secret trials, because usually after the trial took place, the court will hand down sentences in one to three months. However, it has been more than a year since Yu’s secret trial but I still haven’t received any update.

This kind of detention is a form of persecution, and there have been many illegal situations throughout the process of his case. Additionally, the Chinese government has been intentionally prolonging the detention of my husband and they refuse to hand down a sentence for him. Such treatment is cruel and inhumane. If he is innocent, then the court should immediately release him.

If the Chinese government is determined to persecute him, then they should just hand down the sentence. However, the government has been refusing to hand down the sentence while also declining to release him. Such behavior is against the rule of law in China. It is also very inhumane to my husband and my family. I have no information about the status of his case or his physical conditions. I have tried to search for any relevant information through the court system, the detention centers in Xuzhou or the supervisory department in Beijing. However, my search so far has brought me nothing.

Many people around the world also can’t tolerate the prolonged detention of my husband and Beijing’s refusal to hand down sentences. On the one year anniversary of his secret trial, many lawyers, international human rights organizations and government officials from several countries have issued statement regarding this particular case. I want to thank them for their support and I want to call on the international community to keep paying attention to my husband’s case.

At the same time, I want to ask Beijing’s judicial departments to try to respect human rights and rule of law. No matter how much efforts I put into preparing all the necessary materials, no government agency has responded to my inquiry about my husband’s case. This makes me feel really helpless while trying to advocate for him. He has faced so many illegal situations, but the judicial departments have refused to correct them so far. Despite feeling helpless, I won’t give up fighting for my husband’s rights.

Question: Have you considered advocating for your husband through different ways?

Xu Yen: Over the last two and a half years, I have tried all of the legal means, but so far, I haven’t received any responses from the government. However, I will keep demanding an update on his case through the legal route with the lawyer, but whether that will work or not, I’m not so sure. Additionally, I have also tried to fight for my husband’s rights at different governmental departments, but most of the time, they refuse to let us in. As a result, we couldn’t find the person in charge of his case.

The last time I had an update about my husband case was on December 25, 2019, when a judge at Xuzhou Intermediate People’s Court verbally told me that they haven’t handed down sentences yet. On May 8, 2020, I tried to call the court again, but they still told me that they haven’t received any official verdict regarding my husband’s case. If they have handed down the sentence but didn’t want to share the result with me or our lawyer, there will be a verdict in the court system. Since they haven’t received any verdict, it means that the court hasn’t handed down sentences yet.

Question: You were put under house arrest during the Global Lawyers Forum last December. Have you faced any oppression from the government recently?

Xu Yen: I wrote an open letter before the Global Lawyers Forum began last year. In the letter, I called on all lawyers attending the forum to speak up for my husband. However, on the day of the event, I was banned from leaving my house by several plainclothes police. When I tried to leave my house, they verbally abused me and tried to physically assault me. I almost fell to the ground on several occasions.

In fact, since my husband was detained, the house under my residence has been turned into a surveillance spot. Normally, staff from the neighborhood residents committee will be there, but during sensitive periods, local police will be stationed over there. Apart from the surveillance spot, there are seven surveillance cameras around my house, which means the government is closely monitoring me at all times.

I was followed by someone when I left my house two days ago, and that person kept taking photos of me. I think it’s very clear that I’m under constant surveillance, and it’s just the matter of close or loose surveillance.

Question: Another human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang was recently released from jail after serving a four and a half year sentence, and he reunited with his family more than a week ago. Does the result of his case give you some faith to keep advocating for your husband?

Xu Yen: I want to congratulate QuanZhang and Wen-Zu for finally being reunited. Comparing to other lawyers who were persecuted during the “709 Crackdown,” Quanzhang’s prison sentence was longer.

As for my husband case, I still can’t accept the fact that the Chinese government is still intentionally prolonging his detention without wanting to hand down sentences. My husband’s crime was “inciting subversion of state power,” which is supposed to carry a shorter prison sentence comparing to other human rights lawyers. However, apart from QuanZhang, my husband has experienced more cruel treatment than other human rights lawyers.

Apart from being detained for more than two and a half years, the Chinese government has charged my husband with all the crimes that other 709 human rights lawyers have “committed.” On top of that, they even use more nasty ways to treat my husband. The government put him through a secret trial without notifying his family members, which shows that China’s judicial situation continues to worsen.

I hope my husband can be immediately released without any charges, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. If he were to be released without any charges, we will consider applying for state compensation. As Yu Wensheng’s wife, I demand the government to immediately release him, because he has been unfairly detained and his detention is illegal.

I also hope he can reunite with me and the kids soon, because I’m very worried about his conditions. The only thing I can do now is to keep fighting for his rights and trying not to give up.

This interview first appeared in Mandarin on DW’s Chinese website.