A prominent Chinese human rights lawyer who disappeared late last year has been officially charged with "subversion of state power", his wife said today, after his case attracted international attention.
Jiang Tianyong took on numerous high-profile cases, including those of Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetan protesters and victims of the 2008 contaminated milk powder scandal before being disbarred for his activism in 2009.
Jiang's father received official notification of his arrest last Thursday, according to Jiang's wife Jin Bianling, who currently lives in the US where she fled in 2013 to escape harassment from Chinese authorities.
The family has not had contact with Jiang since his sudden disappearance on November 21 en route from Beijing to Changsha, the capital of the central province of Hunan, where he had gone to enquire about a detained human rights lawyer.
In the six months since Jiang disappeared "we have not spoken, his lawyers have not been allowed to see him, and we didn't know where he was being held," Jin told AFP.
"Now at least we know where he is."
Jiang's treatment, according to Amnesty International China researcher Patrick Poon, "violates international human rights standards on protection of the rights to a legal counsel, and Jiang can no way be given a fair trial in such manner.
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