New | Top law experts issue global call for China’s President Xi Jinping to release detained rights lawyers

Twenty top legal experts, lawyers and judges from across the world have issued a joint letter calling on China’s President Xi Jinping to release mainland rights lawyers and advocates swept up in an unprecedented crackdown that led to about 300 people questioned, harassed or detained by police.

Critics say the sweeping crackdown was aimed at silencing advocates and activists and stifling the burgeoning rights defence movement.

They say it shows the mainland authorities’ fear of the fast-growing civil society and their wariness over the crucial role played by an expanding community of rights lawyers in the grass-roots “rights defence” movement.

READ MORE: Chinese rights advocates Wang Yu, Bao Longjun formally arrested on subversion charges

They also called on China to ensure they have access to counsel, confirm the whereabouts of those forcibly disappeared and ensure that their rights, including the right to adequate medical treatment, are safeguarded.

“By detaining and disappearing these lawyers and law firm staff, China is in breach of its international obligations as well as Chinese domestic criminal law and constitutional principles,” the letter said.

The sweeping crackdown on mainland human rights lawyers started on July 9 last year, with the detention of lawyer Wang Yu and her husband, Bao Longjun, after she saw him and their 16-year-old son off at the airport – the boy was due to start school in Australia.