The following is based on a communication written by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Government of China on 8 April 2024. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Government time to reply. Regrettably, the Government did not reply within this timeframe. If a reply is received, it will be posted on the UN Special Procedures communications database.
At the time of publication, the cases of Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng are both at the first trial stage (first instance court).
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the alleged arbitrary detention of woman human rights defender Xu Yan and human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, and the conditions they are subjected to in detention.
Xu Yan is a woman human rights defender, who began advocating for human rights in 2014 in response to her husband, human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng’s arrest, and became more involved in such advocacy in 2015 in response to the “709 crackdown” against human rights lawyers in China. Following the arrest of Yu Wensheng in 2018, Xu Yan furthered her advocacy, travelling throughout the country to raise awareness of her husband’s case and those of other detained human rights lawyers.
Yu Wensheng is a prominent human rights lawyer and has represented human rights defenders and lawyers in national security cases, some of which have been the subject of previous communications sent by Special Procedures mandate holders, as listed below. He was arbitrarily detained in January 2018 and placed in “residential surveillance in a designated location” on allegations of “inciting subversion of State power”. A trial for these charges took placed behind closed doors in May 2019, and in June 2020 Yu Wensheng was sentenced to four years in prison and a three-year suspension of his political rights. Concerns relating to his arrest, the charges against him, alleged fair trial rights violations and his conditions in detention were previously raised by Special Procedures communications listed below. Yu Wensheng was released on 1 March 2022, after completing his four-year sentence. He was awarded the Franco-German Prize for Human Rights the Rule of Law in 2018 and Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2021 in recognition of his human rights advocacy.
Yu Wensheng was the subject of two previous communications sent by Special Procedures mandate holders to the Chinese Government on 6 March 2018 (UA CHN 5/2018) and on 13 August 2020 (AL CHN 16/2020).
ALLEGATIONS
On 12 April 2023, Yu Wensheng posted on X (formerly Twitter) that Shijingshan police officers had come to his home to question him about a tweet he had posted on 9 April, condemning the sentencing of two prominent human rights lawyers.
On 13 April 2023 at approximately 4 p.m., Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng left their home in Beijing to take the subway to an event they had been invited to at the European Union Delegation. They were prevented from entering the subway however by four plainclothes officers, and one of the officers – reportedly a state security police officer – informed them that they were being summoned to a police station. The officers then took Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng to Shijingshan Bajiao police station.
On the evening of 15 April 2023, approximately seven police officers went to Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng’s home and read aloud a criminal detention notice to their son, who had just recently turned 18. He was not provided with a copy of the notice, nor allowed to take a photo of it. The officers reportedly proceeded to search the home, without providing a search warrant, and confiscated a number of personal items.
On 16 April 2023, two lawyers went to the home of Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng to check on their son and so he could fill out paperwork to entrust them as lawyers for the case. There were reportedly two people guarding the door of the home, and when the son came to the door, the lawyers could see that two police officers were also inside the home – one in uniform and one plainclothes. When the lawyers informed the officers as to why they were visiting, the plainclothes officer reportedly responded that Xu Yan had already appointed two lawyers and that Yu Wensheng had informed them that he did not want lawyers at this stage.
On 21 May 2023, Yu Wensheng’s brother was informed that Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng had been arrested on the charge of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. The authorities reportedly showed him the arrest warrant but did not provide him with a copy or allow him to take a photo of it.
In late May 2023, it was reportedly revealed that Xu Yan had been further charged by the Beijing Public Security Bureau’s Shijingshan Branch with “inciting subversion of state power”. Her appointed lawyer scheduled to visit Xu Yan on 30 May 2023, but was reportedly refused by the detention centre, citing ongoing police interrogation as the reason.
In July 2023, Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng’s lawyers were reportedly denied access to meet with them.
In October 2023, lawyers for Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng were denied from meeting with them for a second time.
On 19 October 2023, the cases of Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng were reportedly formally reviewed, and their arrest formally approved.
On 18 November 2023, Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng’s son reportedly attempted to take his life by overdosing on medication. He was rushed to hospital and prevented from suffering a life-threatening condition. The attempt on his life was reportedly in relation to the extensive police surveillance he had been subjected to since his parents were detained. Police officers reportedly monitor the entrance of the home constantly and accompany him to meals with friends and relatives of Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng.
On 1 December 2023, following multiple complaints and negotiations, lawyers for Xu Yan were permitted to meet with her. During this meeting, she told them that 10 days after the review of her case on 19 October, she had begun a hunger strike to protest the repeated denial of access to her lawyer. Xu Yan informed her lawyers during this meeting that she had been given only a thin blanket and so suffered from the cold, despite other detainees having three, and there being spare blankets in the cell. She is suffering from swelling in her legs and back as a result of having to sit on hard surfaces for prolonged periods, and after six months was permitted medical examination, but was not informed of the exact problem, and she continues to suffer from the pain. When Xu Yan was first detained, she was beaten by other detainees in her cell. The prison authorities deemed it to be a fight, and as punishment Xu Yan was assigned to clean the toilets for two and a half months. Since being detained, Xu Yan has lost approximately 28 kilograms, and the food in the Detention Centre is of low nutritional quality.
During interrogations with police officers, Xu Yan was reportedly threatened for not cooperating with their record taking, and that if her son continued to advocate for her rights, he would be arrested too. She was also reportedly subjected to verbal abuse by the officers.
Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng were initially detained in Shijingshan Detention Centre in Beijing, but have reportedly been moved to the Suzhou Jiangsu Province, meaning that the couple are now detained outside of their registered residential address, and creates substantial difficulty for family members to visit them. Xu Yan is reportedly detained in Suzhou First Detention Centre, and Yu Wensheng in Suzhou Fourth Detention Centre.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express our dismay in relation to the allegedly arbitrary detention of human rights defenders Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng, the charges against them which seem to have been brought against them in relation to their exercising of their right to freedom of opinion and expression and carrying out their peaceful and legitimate human rights work, the conditions they have been subjected to in detention, including the inability to meet with their appointed lawyers, and the apparent surveillance and intimidation of their son, which has reportedly had detrimental impacts on his physical and mental integrity. We are also deeply concerned about the condition of their detention.
We are concerned that the alleged arrest, detention of and charges against Xu Yan and the arbitrary detention of Yu Wensheng appear to be in relation to their exercising of their right to freedom of expression to peacefully and legitimately advocate for human rights – particularly those of detained human rights defenders and lawyers. That they would then be subjected to punitive measures in relation to exercising this fundamental right would not only be in violation of international human rights law and standards, but also indicative of a concerning cycle of detaining and indicting human rights defenders and lawyers advocating for the rights of other human rights defenders who have been detained and indicted.
We also wish to express serious concern regarding the reported surveillance and resulting intimidation of Xu Yan and Yu Wensheng’s son, and the threats Xu Yan has reportedly received from officers in relation to her son’s advocacy. Special Procedures mandate holders have previously expressed similar concern regarding reported threats and intimidation of the family members of human rights defenders (AL CHN 20/2020, UA CHN 12/2014, UA CHN 4/2012), the aim of which would appear to be twofold – to deter the human rights defender from carrying out their work, and to deter the family member from advocating on their behalf.
