Lu Siwei re-arrested weeks before provisional release expires

On 10 October 2024, public security authorities in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, re-arrested human rights defender Lu Siwei from his home. Shortly after, his family received a formal arrest notice issued by the Chenghua District Branch of the Chengdu Municipal Public Security Bureau, informing them that Lu Siwei had been arrested on the charge of “illegally crossing border”. This is the same charge on the basis of which he was deported from Laos back to China in late September 2023.

Following his deportation from Laos to China in late September 2023, he was initially detained in Chengdu on the charge of “illegally crossing border” before being provisionally released under a legal procedure formally known as release on guarantee pending investigation (取保候审). His provisional release was due to expire on 27 October 2024. He faces up to a year in prison if the authorities decide to prosecute him and if found guilty by a court.

Front Line Defenders strongly condemns the deportation of Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Siwei back to China by the Lao authorities, who detained the human rights defender on 28 July 2023 while he was about to board a train to Thailand for his onward journey to the United States to reunite with his wife and child.

Lu Siwei (卢思位) was a human rights lawyer based in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. He provided legal assistance to victims of human rights violations. His work focused on human rights issues such as freedom of expression, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, forced eviction, and demolition of personal properties. In recent years, he also provided legal counsel to political activists in Hong Kong who were detained and tried in mainland China while fleeing to Taiwan. In retaliation against his human rights work, the Chinese authorities arbitrarily disbarred him in January 2021 and imposed a travel ban on him in May 2021 on unspecified “national security” grounds.

Zhang Chunxiao, Lu Siwei’s wife, who is now living in the United States, told overseas Chinese-language media sources this week that the human rights defender’s family members in Sichuan received a call from local police asking them to send clothing, medicine and money for Lu Siwei who is being transferred to a detention centre in Xindu district in Chengdu. The caller did not provide further information on the exact date of his deportation from Laos back to China or on the legal basis of his detention.

Since detaining Lu Siwei on 28 July 2023, near the Lao-Thai border, the Lao authorities failed to definitively confirm the exact location of his detention and denied repeated requests by diplomats, UN officials, civil society representatives, and family-appointed lawyers to meet with the human rights defender. Neither the Lao nor the Chinese authorities have released verifiable, accurate, or transparent information that would enable an assessment of whether, and how, Lu Siwei’s detention and subsequent deportation complied procedurally and substantively with local laws in both countries, as well as international human rights law.

On 3 August 2023, UN human rights experts sent a formal urgent appeal to the Lao government expressing grave concerns about Lu Siwei’s detention and the imminent risk of his deportation back to China, where, the experts stated, “there are substantial grounds to believe that Mr. Lu Siwei would be in danger of being subjected to irreparable harm upon his return to China on account of torture, cruel, inhuman, degrading or ill-treatment or punishment, and other serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detention or enforced disappearance.” On 11 August 2023, UN human rights experts followed up with a press release calling on the Lao authorities to end the human rights defender’s arbitrary detention and allow him to continue his travel to the United States.

Front Line Defenders calls on the international community to take all necessary and meaningful measures to hold the Lao government accountable for Lu Siwei’s deportation back to China, which is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement as enshrined, among others, in Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), to which Laos is party. Impunity for such complicity in refoulement and transnational repression emboldens perpetrators.

Front Line Defenders also calls on the Chinese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Lu Siwei, drop any charges against him, and allow him to leave the country to reunite with his family in the United States. Pending his release, the human rights defender should be given prompt and regular access to a legal counsel of his choice, to family visitations, and to adequate and quality medical care.