Chinese activist's lawyers slam purported interview with him

Lawyers representing a prominent detained Chinese human rights campaigner complained that a purported interview with him published today by a state-run newspaper constituted an abuse of power.

The Global Times said Jiang Tianyong told them he had concocted a story of a lawyer, Xie Yang, having been tortured by police. Xie has been held since July 2015 following a sweeping crackdown on civil rights lawyers and activists.

Jiang was detained in November after visiting Xie's wife and is accused of inciting subversion of state power.

Jiang was a lawyer before being disbarred in 2009, but continued his activism and helped publicize the plight of lawyers arrested in the crackdown.
 

He was also detained and beaten by police as part of his past human rights work involving some of China's most sensitive cases, including that of blind activist Chen Guangcheng and followers of the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual group.

Jiang's wife, Jin Bianling, told The Associated Press she planned to sue the Global Times for defaming her husband. "The Global Times article is fake," Jin said from California, where she moved in 2013 with the couple's daughter to escape harassment from security agents.

The nationalistic tabloid is published by the ruling Communist Party's newspaper People's Daily and regularly lashes out at government critics.

Jiang's lawyers said in an open letter that they have not been allowed to meet with him on the grounds that such a meeting might lead to the leaking of state secrets. They questioned on what conditions the Global Times was permitted to interview him.

Authorities have said Jiang is being held under "coercive measures" at a secret police-designated location, a form of detention that is often used against individuals accused of endangering state security.

The lawyers said in their letter to the Ministry of Public Security and others that there was "every reason to believe" that both Jiang and Xie had undergone torture in detention, and that the banning of lawyers and family members from visiting them had increased the suspicion that they had been tortured.

"We are concerned about whether there is any legal basis for allowing Global Times journalists, whose credibility and trustworthiness are questionable, to meet Jiang Tianyong, while denying lawyers' access, and we seek to know whether the government is abusing power in doing so," the letter read.

Beatings, sleep deprivation and other forms of abuse are believed to be common in China's criminal justice system, despite attempts by the judiciary to discourage them.