The European Union has called on China to promptly investigate reports of torture of three detained mainland human rights lawyers. The EU was “aware of recent information regarding the serious mistreatment of detained human rights lawyers Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang and Xie Yang” – mistreatment that would “amount to torture” if verified, the European Union’s European External Action Service said on Saturday. Xie, who is expected to soon face trial on subversion charges, was beaten, and deprived of sleep, water and medical care by interrogators who vowed to torture him until he “went insane”, according to a statement by his lawyers this month. The interrogators also threatened harm to his family, the statement quoted Xie as saying. Li and Wang were also subjected to various forms of torture while under residential surveillance, including electric shocks that made them faint, the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group said last week. The three lawyers were all detained in July 2015 during a nationwide round-up known as the “709 crackdown”.
