Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan on Monday put on trial veteran rights activist Huang Qi on state secrets charges w
Authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan on Monday put on trial veteran rights activist Huang Qi on state secrets charges, while detaining dozens of his supporters who tried to travel to the court buildings in Mianyang city.
Huang, 56, stood trial beginning at 8.30 a.m. on charges of “leaking state secrets,” and “leaking state secrets overseas” at the Mianyang Intermediate People’s Court behind closed doors, amid a strong police
presence outside the building.
He was recently identified by Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as one of 10 citizen journalists in danger of dying in detention.
One of Huang’s former defense attorneys, Liu Zhengqing, said he wasn’t informed of the trial beforehand, with the authorities saying that its content involved matters of “national security.”
Liu was warned off further involvement in Huang’s case, lost his license to practice as a lawyer, and forced to sign a declaration to that effect, he said.
“It’s not convenient for me to talk right now; I’m not able to give interviews,” he said. “I wasn’t able to appear in court, and I wasn’t informed of the trial by the court.”
Huang, who founded the Tianwang rights website, has repeatedly denied the charges and refused to “confess.”
His mother Pu Wenqing, who has repeatedly called for Huang’s release on urgent medical grounds, and who says the charges are politically motivated, with no evidence to back them up, has been incommunicado since her detention on Dec. 7 at a railway station in Beijing, where she had gone to campaign for his release.
Li Jinglin, another member of Huang’s defense team, implied that the trial had only lasted a few hours.
“Even [the time that the trial ended] is secret,” Li told RFA. “I have now [left the court],” he said when contacted on Monday afternoon.
Foreign diplomats from several nations arrived in Mianyang on Sunday in the hope of attending the trial, but weren’t admitted, while local government, police and judicial websites and social media accounts made no mention of the trial.
