Beijing officials suspend critical lawyer’s practice
By Mure Dickie
in Beijing
A Chinese lawyer who criticised government suppression
of followers of the banned Falun Gong movement and sought to represent private
oil investors in a landmark lawsuit against the state has been ordered to suspend
his practice for a year.
The action against the firm, led by Gao Zhisheng,
underlines the risks facing Chinese lawyers who take on politically sensitive
cases or who publicly challenge the legality of government actions.
Mr
Gao said Beijing’s judicial bureau ordered his practice, which employs a dozen
lawyers, to cease operations after he refused to retract a open letter to Chinese
leaders that denounced the "barbaric persecution" of Falun Gong members.
Judicial officials had previously told him to end his involvement in efforts
by investors to sue the government of northern Shaanxi Province and to withdraw
from the defence of a lawyer arrested for helping villagers in a dispute with
leaders of the Guangdong village of Taishi.
"[The authorities] suppress
anyone who believes the law," Mr Gao said.
The suspension of Mr Gao’s
practice follows his publication on international websites last month of a strongly
worded open letter to Hu Jintao, Chinese president.
The letter detailed
allegations of brutal treatment of followers of the Falun Gong, a mystical movement
that combines elements of religion and physical exercise but has been condemned
by Beijing.
"A new round of sustained, systematic, large-scale, organised
and barbaric persecution is under way against compatriots who are believers in
the Falun Gong," Mr Gao wrote.
Judicial bureau officials had called
on him to retract the letter, saying failure to do so would be "impolite",
Mr Gao told the FT.
He said the reason given by the bureau for suspending
his practice was that it had failed to register its new address after moving in
July. "We had gone twice to register the new location, but they refused to
do so," he said.
Officials of the bureau were unavailable for comment
at the weekend.
The closure of Mr Gao’s firm is a new blow to the efforts
of investors to sue authorities in Shaanxi Province over the seizure in 2003 of
thousands of private oil wells worth a claimed Rmb7bn ($866m). In May, the province’s
top court refused to accept the case on unclear legal grounds and authorities
detained Zhu Jiuhu, the lawyer leading the legal campaign, as well as a number
of investor activists.
After Mr Zhu and most of the activists were released,
investors had approached Mr Gao to restart the lawsuit.
However, Mr Gao
said Beijing’s action against his firm, under which its members are barred from
practicing law and must reportfor political study sessions, would make other lawyers
reluctant to accept thecase.
Mr Gao said he planned to continue to work
on sensitive issues such as the rights of Falun Gong members despite being barred
from practice, even though such activities carried the risk of incurring "restrictions
to one’s personal freedom".
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/9251763e-4f32-11da-9947-0000779e2340.html
Posting date: 9/Nov/2005
Original article date: 7/Nov/2005
Category:
Media Report
