Not a major surprise but rather disheartening news never the less….
The Guardian newspaper (UK) reports:
China court closes human rights law firm for six months
Beijing-based firm believes move is retaliation for members’ support over call for direct elections to lawyers’ group
A Chinese court has ordered a pioneering law firm which specialises in human rights cases to close for six months.
Yitong has defended some of the country’s best-known dissidents, including Hu Jia, currently serving a three-year sentence.
But the Beijing-based firm has been ordered to stop work and hand in the licences of all its lawyers – leaving them without livelihoods.
Li Jinsong, the managing partner, said he believed the move was retaliation for several members’ support for a call for direct elections to the state-controlled Beijing Lawyers’ Association. He blamed a small group of low-ranking officials for seeking to protect their own interests.
According to a court document posted on Yitong’s website, the firm violated the law by allowing lawyer Li Subin to work there without a licence.
He was employed as a paralegal, having been unable to renew his licence after winning a case against a judicial bureau in central Henan province for overcharging lawyers to register. He had previously represented Chen Guangcheng, a blind rights activist who angered officials in Shandong by exposing forced abortions and was subsequently jailed for disrupting traffic and damaging property.
But Li Jinsong said: "What [officials] have done is knowingly violate the law … The direct reason is Yitong took in some lawyers who have been calling for direct elections in the Beijing Lawyers Association."
Full Story at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/19/china-court-closes-law-firm
