Lu Siwei physically assaulted when attempting to submit legal challenge against license revocation

On 13 July 2021, disbarred human rights lawyer Lu Siwei went to the Chengdu Qingyang District Court in an attempt to initiate an administrative lawsuit against the Sichuan Provincial Judicial Department for revoking his lawyer's license. The court receptionists said they needed to consult with other officials and left their desk. The human rights defender waited almost 50 minutes without any response or confirmation of his request. As he had to leave to attend to other affairs, he decided to use his mobile to film himself as proof of his visit to the court. A court police officer asked the defender to delete the video, but Lu Siwei refused. Four other court police officers then came forward to restrain the human rights defender, putting him in a chokehold and locking his arm behind his back. He was then pushed to the ground and an officer placed his leg on the human rights defender's neck which made it difficult to breathe. The human rights defender was then taken to an office where he agreed to delete the video, but the officers grabbed his phone and and recorded the content on the device before returning it to him. The defender suffered injuries to his arms.

In the end, the court did not open a case as Lu Siwei had requested, and refused to provide any decision in writing.
 

On 25 January 2021, the Sichuan Provincial Lawyers Association, a government-controlled entity, informed human rights lawyer Lu Siwei that his membership has been officially revoked as a result of the revocation of his lawyer's license on 15 January 2021. He has the right to request the Association to review the decision within 15 days.

On 13 January 2020, the Sichuan Provincial Judicial Department will hold a hearing in Chengdu, at the request of human rights lawyer Lu Siwei, who will contest the authorities’ decision to initiate the process to revoke his lawyer’s license in response to his human rights work and the exercise of his right to freedom of expression.

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Lu Siwei (卢思位) is a human rights lawyer based in Chengdu, Sichuan province in western China. He has provided legal assistance to victims of human rights violations and is outspoken against instances of social injustice and the suffering of vulnerable groups. Through legal assistance, legal representation, signature petitions and other advocacy means, he has worked on human rights issues human issues such as freedom of expression, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, and forced eviction and demolition.

The human rights lawer has defended fellow human rights lawyers who are or were facing criminal prosecution, including Yu Wensheng, Qin Yongpei, and Wang Quanzhang. In 2019, he faced disciplinary proceedings initiated by the State-controlled Chengdu Municipal Bar Association, which were believed to be in reprisal for his legal assistance to fellow human rights lawyer Chen Jiahong who was detained on suspicion of “inciting subversion”.

In 2020, Lu Siwei was hired to defend one of the 12 Hong Kong youth activists who were intercepted by Chinese authorities in August 2020 while fleeing to Taiwan by boat, but the authorities refused to allow him to meet his client and repeatedly threatened him in a bid to force him to abandon the case. On 28 December 2020, The European Union criticised the trial and subsequent sentencing of ten of the activists for not respecting the defendants’ fair trial and due process rights, including the right to appoint legal counsel of their choice.

In November 2020, the Chengdu Qingyang District Judicial Bureau demanded that Lu Siwei’s law firm turn over all files and legal counsel appointment documents in all cases handled by him since February 2019. The Bureau also required the law firm to inform the Bureau within three days of Lu Siwei signing any agreement to serve as a legal counsel and three days before the start of any trial in which he is the legal counsel.

In early January 2021, Lu Siwei received an official notice from the Sichuan Provincial Judicial Department informing him of its decision to suspend his license as an “administrative punishment” for his online activity which, according to the Bureau, was “inappropriate”, “severely damaged the legal profession”, and “caused negative social impact”.

The notice asserts that Lu Siwei’s actions have violated article 49(8) of the Law on Lawyers, which punishes speech acts that “harm national security, maliciously defame others, and seriously disrupt order in a court”, and article 38(3) of the Measures of the Administration of Lawyers’ Practice, which prohibits lawyers from “organising groups, launching joint signature petitions, publishing open letters, organising online gathering and advocacy” in order to “generate public pressure, attack, and defame judicial organs and the judicial system”. These provisions are overly broad and vague and confer wide discretionary powers to the authorities to punish lawyers for exercising their legitimate rights under both Chinese laws and international human rights standards.

In a statement responding to the Judicial Bureau’s decision, Lu Siwei stated that the provincial authorities abused their powers and did not follow the proper procedures governing license revocation. He also insisted that throughout his legal career, he has never acted in ways that are contrary to ethics and regulations governing the profession.

Front Line Defenders believes the judicial authorities’ actions against Lu Siwei are reprisals for his legitimate human rights work, including his defense of the due process and fair trial rights of other human rights defenders.