Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

In the early hours of 6 April, human rights lawyer Mr Wang Quanzhang was released from detention in the province of eastern Jiangsu, approximately 56 hours after he was detained and placed under a 10-day judicial detention for “disrupting court order”. The human rights defender was detained for photographing a document which he had been asked to submit to the court, as it was his only copy!  The Jingjiang People’s Court released Wang Quanzhang on the grounds that the short detention had already served as a punishment and a warning. However, the human rights defender believes that his release is due to public pressure. Wang Quanzhang had been defending Mr Zhu Yanian, who is a member of Falun Gong and was being tried for ‘using a cult organisation to undermine the implementation of the law’.

For more information on this case, please see Front Line Defender’s Urgent Appeal on 5 April 2013 <http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/22244> .

This entry was posted on April 11, 2013 at 19:43 and is filed under Front Line, human rights.

Tags: China, detention, Falun Gong, Front Line Defenders, Human right, Human rights defender, human rights lawyer, illegal detention, Jiangsu, Jingjiang, lawyer, release, threats, Wang Quanzhang