Case History: Zhu Yubiao

Eleven weeks after the expiry of his two-year prison sentence for “using a cult to undermine the law” on 17 August 2012, human rights defender Mr Zhu Yubiao remains in detention in Guangdong province.

On 15 August 2012, two days before Zhu Yubiao was due to be released, his family was informed by authorities that he was being sent to Sanshui Legal Education Centre in Sanshui District, Foshan, Guangdong province. According to sources, Sanshui Legal Education Centre is a holding centre for Falun Gong practitioners where they are reportedly subjected to various kinds of coercive measures to make them renounce their Falun Gong practices. On 20 August 2012 Zhu Yubiao began a hunger strike to protest his ongoing detention. According to his family, since then he has only been eating the bare minimum to ensure his survival.

Zhu Yubiao was initially detained on 18 August 2010 after a police search of his home in Haizhu District, Guangzhou city, turned up Falun Gong material, including books, CDs, leaflets and teaching materials. He was formally charged on 9 September 2010 with 'using an evil cult to undermine the law' and sentenced to two years' imprisonment on 13 July 2011 by the Haizhu District People's Court.

Zhu Yubiao, who practised with Guangda Law Firm and Hengyi Law Firm in Guangdong, was the first lawyer to defend Falun Gong practitioners in the province in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, he was sentenced to re-education through labour from February 2007 to April 2008 in connection with his defence of Falun Gong clients. On his release, the Guangzhou Municipal Judicial Bureau ordered Zhu Yubiao to refuse further Falun Gong cases, and after he declined to do so, he was informed that his license to practise law would not be renewed. Front Line Defenders believes Zhu Yubiao is being targeted as a direct result of his history of defending the legal rights of Falun Gong clients.