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NEW YORK — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) urges the Chinese government to release human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang unconditionally after more than two years of incommunicado detention. Wang was...

NEW YORK — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) urges the Chinese government to release human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang unconditionally after more than two years of incommunicado detention. Wang was among the more than 300 human rights lawyers and activists detained in the “709 Crackdown” in 2015, the largest government crackdown on Chinese human rights lawyers and activists in history. Since then, most of the human rights lawyers arrested have been released or brought to trial, yet Wang has remained in custody without trial since July 10, 2015.

“Mr. Wang was arrested on trumped up charges that blame him for nothing more than exercising the duties of his profession and defending his clients,” said Thor Halvorssen, president of HRF. “The Chinese government claims that its country is governed by rule of law. If that statement were true, then China must release these brave human rights defenders still in detention, starting with Mr. Wang,” he added.

Earlier this year, prosecutors disclosed that Wang was being held on charges of “inciting subversion of state power.” Like many of those who were detained, Wang has been denied access to lawyers appointed by his family. Wang’s family and friends have been denied visitation and continue to worry about him having been tortured.

In January this year, Xie Yang, also a Chinese lawyer who was detained in the “709 Crackdown,” spoke in detail with his attorneys, Chen Jiangang and Liu Zhengqing, about the torture he endured under detention. According to the transcripts of their meetings, Xie was taken away from a hotel in Hongjiang City, Hunan, on July 11, 2015, to a secretive detention facility where he was interrogated and tortured by police investigators for a week and was forced to confess to false political crimes. Xie was kept from contacting the outside world during the entire duration of his detention.

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.

For press inquiries, contact Prachi Vidwans at (212) 246-8486 or prachi@humanrightsfdn.wpengine.com.

TAKE ACTION.

Call on the Chinese government to release Wang Quanzhang unconditionally.

CONTACT:

Li Keqiang, Premier of China, Email: premier@mail.gov.cn

Xi Jinping, President of China, Email: englishpd@163.com

Ambassador Cui Tiankai, Ambassador of China to the United States. Telephone: +1(202) 495-2266, Email: chinaembpress_us@mfa.gov.cn

Ambassador Liu Jieyi, Ambassador of China to the United Nations. Email: chinamission_un@mfa.gov.cn