Supporters, police clash at human rights lawyer’s trial

In a statement, Human Rights Watch’s Sophie Richardson said that “nothing Pu Zhiqiang has written has violated any law, but the authorities’ treatment of him certainly has”. Police clashed with foreign journalists and protesters, who were banned from entering. They said it would not be decided by “pressure from the West”.

Several hundred of Pu’s supporters showed up outside the court building holding placards, and police detained 18 people in scuffles with the crowd, eyewitnesses said. It said that the trial raised “serious questions of consistency with China’s constitutional guarantees of freedom of assembly, opinion and expression”, according to photographs of the statement posted on social media by reporters. His other lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said that Pu expressed hope for a verdict that would “stand the test of history”.

Pu, famed for defending dissidents and rights activists, was detained in May a year ago after he attended a private seminar to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.

“The authorities have made it clear that they see rights lawyers in particular as enemies of the state…”

China’s most influential human rights lawyer went on trial himself here Monday, as police scuffled outside the courthouse with diplomats and journalists who were not allowed in.

In four of the seven posts, Pu had called for reform in Beijing’s policies toward Xinjiang and Tibet and the religious and ethnic in the regions – resulting in charges of “inciting ethnic hatred” for posts that allegedly “provoked ethnic relations… and damaged ethnic unity”.

Shang said Pu admitted in court that his microblog writing style was “sharp, caustic and sometimes vulgar” and was willing to apologise.

Police tried to prevent Biers from reading out a statement near the courthouse, pushing him and foreign reporters out of the way.

Technically, he is accused of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble, along with inciting ethnic hatred” – a formulation often used against critics of the communist party. The group said at least one foreign journalist was slammed to the ground while others were pushed away from the site or summoned to last-minute meetings with authorities.

The start of his trial sparked outrage from free speech activists and a call from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to release him.

Pu also said that if any had been offended by what he wrote, he was willing to apologize. They were refused admittance by the police. Officials have not said when the verdict will be announced. In those posts, he criticized government officials as well as policy in China’s ethnic borderlands.

After 18 months of investigation, however, the prosecutor cited just seven comments by Pu on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, as evidence supporting the charges.

The case has attracted so much attention because of Pu’s professional stature – his work has been praised by state-run magazines – and the fact he faces a near-certain conviction on what many consider a problematic, catch-all charge.