China: Lawyers Call For An End To 'Suppression'

Human rights groups have called for an end to the "relentless suppression" of lawyers and activists in China, as the first of those detained in a nationwide crackdown last year are put on trial.

Zhou Shifeng, the founder of a law firm known for taking cases defending citizens' rights, was found guilty of "subverting state power" and sentenced to seven years in prison after a trial lasting less than a day.

Activists Zhai Yanmin, Hu Shigen, and Gou Hongguo were convicted on the same charge at Tianjin No. 2 People's Court this week.

Since last July, 248 human rights lawyers and activists have been detained, many of whom were held for months in pre-trial detention, unable to contact their relatives.  

Fourteen are still awaiting trial.

Sky News has spoken to some of the lawyers' families who say they are now subject to surveillance, harassment, and in some cases what amounts to house arrest.

Yuan Shanshan's husband, Xie Yanyi, was taken away 13 months ago.  

She found out she was pregnant shortly afterwards.

She doesn't want to name the baby until her husband is able to meet her, so her little girl doesn't have a name.

She said her husband doesn't even know they have a daughter.

"Since he was taken away, I lost all communications with him," she told us.

"I don't know anything about his health condition, his state of mind, or his whereabouts.

"As of now, I don't even know if he is still alive, or dead."

We arranged to pick her up at a meeting point on a street in Beijing.  

She claims she has been told the police are trying to find her, her relatives have been contacted by officers attempting to locate her and her landlord has been told to kick her out.

She fears being put under house arrest or worse, so she is moving from one location to the next, with her baby, a small rucksack, and a carrier bag.

"I feel numb, because I can do nothing," she said. 

She added: "No-one can help us solve it."

Her husband's mother is also a lawyer and tried to help her find him, but every meeting and letter they attempted was denied.

Her mother-in-law, who had previously been in good health, was taken suddenly ill last year and died.  

She fears the anxiety over her son's disappearance may have brought it on.

She worries the case has also traumatised her two older children, who were at home when dozens of police officers arrived to search their house.

Yuan Shanshan wanted to travel with us to Tianjin, where the first of the trials were being held, to see what would happen to her husband, but as we got closer we could see that the police had set up roadblocks, and closed the streets leading to the court.

She became too frightened to go further and began to cry, her young daughter asleep in her arms.

Back in Beijing, we tried to reach the spouse of another lawyer who has been detained.

Wang Qiaoling, the wife of Li Heping, had managed to communicate with us, to tell us she was now under what amounts to house arrest inside her apartment.

Several security agents are posted outside her door and at the entrance to her building.  

Her children are allowed out to go to school, but she is now unable to leave.

We arrived at her compound to find men guarding the door, with one man physically bracing himself against it.  

More security guards quickly materialised, ordering us to stop filming and trying to block our cameras.

From inside, however, Wang Qialing, managed to send us a video - showing us the apartment she is now confined to, and the people stationed outside her door.

"Thank you very much, Sky News, for interviewing me," she says in a recorded mobile phone video.

"In this particularly difficult time, Sky News is trying all sorts of ways to interview me, but my door is guarded by at least three or four people so you can't get in, so we use this method."

She asks her teenage son what he would like people to know about his father and their situation.

Li Zeyuan, who is 16, said: "I miss my father very much. The government, CCTV [Chinese state TV] and other media discredit my father and say a lot of things, but in my heart, my father is always an honest and kind person.

"This case makes me feel very disappointed in our government, and makes me more mature than other people my age because I know a lot of things they don't know.

"I hope my Dad will be back soon."

His mother said her main hope now was to regain enough freedom to be able to travel to the court when her husband is tried, in the hope that he will be able to catch a glimpse of her.