Chinese lawyers have launched a signature campaign to protest against curbs on the profession, including the punishment of lawyers said to be acting ‘outside of professional boundaries’. The lawyers are also concerned about a possible ‘large-scale infringement of the civil and political rights of lawyers, and Chinese citizens in general’. 

Manhandled

A leading Beijing human rights lawyer, Li Fangping, says he was recently manhandled and roughly treated by officers from a state prosecution service. He had been helping another lawyer who had been illegally detained. Mr Li said of the officers: ‘They gave no explanation whatsoever, nor did they show what rules [they were acting under]. Two of them pushed me out of my room, so that I had minor injuries on my arms from where they had handled me. I was on the third floor about half a meter from the stairs, so it was very dangerous. One push could have sent me falling down them.’ Source: Radio Free Asia