Clashes at Trial for China Rights Lawyer

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”.

The trial has ended but no verdict has been announced yet.

Pu Zhiqiang supporters gathered outside a Beijing courthouse.

International media and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have condemned the trial as politically motivated.

Pu, known as China’s “Giant Lawyer” for his commanding height and baritone voice, has gained a massive following online as a bold and acerbic critic of government policy.

Pu’s lawyers and supporters said, despite the length of his detention, they still hoped for his release. “The government is suppressing him because he represented the weak and vulnerable”.

“This is less how government functions and more like a season of ‘The Sopranos, ‘” she continued.

While police in uniform showed restraint, security officers in plainclothes, often wearing yellow smiley-face stickers, behaved particularly aggressively, the eyewitness added. Several of them were detained.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China issued a statement condemning the harassment of and violence against both overseas media and their local staff. [AP Photo/Andy Wong]Officially, Pu Zhiqiang is charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” as well as “inciting ethnic hatred”.

“Lawyers and civil society leaders such as Mr. Pu should not be subject to continued repression but should be allowed to contribute to the building of a prosperous and stable society”, Biers said, reading from a statement. The case is centered around seven posts on Pu’s microblog criticizing ethnic policy and government officials in the restive province of Xinjiang, where Beijing has been working to quell unrest and outbursts of fighting amongst its Uighur minority. A USA embassy spokesperson expressed “great concern” over the incident. He has already been in jail for 19 months.

Pu is a legend among civil rights groups and lawyers in China. Diplomats from the United States, the EU, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Britain were among those who tried to attend the trial.

At the court premises, several of Pu’s supporters were involved in a scuffle with the police, which was stopping them from entering the court room. At least two of them were detained by the police.

“One elderly woman told me that some of her friends were taken away by police”. He also was instrumental in pushing for the eventual abolishment of the labor camp system, which allowed police to lock up people for up to four years without a trial.

He is accused over commentaries posted online that were critical of the ruling Communist Party. “He had no such intention”, Shang said. His accounts have since been shut down.

We need freedom of speech! Pu, who had participated in the protests, had vowed to commemorate the anniversary every year.

The charges against Pu, are based upon seven messages he posted to micoblogging platform Weibo between 2012 and 2014. He said Pu was not asked whether he admitted to his guilt during the trial. A verdict is expected later on Monday. Pu is nearly certain to be found guilty – more than 99.9 percent of defendants in criminal cases were found guilty by Chinese courts in 2013, according to official figures.