ICC Note:

Xie Yang, a human rights lawyer in China, has experienced almost two years of torture and persecution in prison. Officials have even gone as far as to target Yang’s wife, Chen Guiqiu, and family. In an attempt to get him to plead guilty to his supposed crimes, they threatened to orchestrate a car accident to injure his family. While the car accident did not happen, authorities did rob Chen’s father and sister’s bank accounts and took their passports. Chen plans to hire lawyers and sue the Chinese government and all those who assisted them in their crimes against her husband and family. Chen and her two daughters recently fled to the US to avoid likely harassment while they fight for justice.

07/05/2017 China (China Aid) – The wife of a tortured human rights lawyer detailed plans to sue the Chinese government and others involved in the persecution of her family in a letter to her husband on Tuesday.

After almost two years of persecution, Chen Guiqiu wrote a letter to her husband Xie Yang, a lawyer who is currently under heavy surveillance and was previously jailed and tortured for his human rights work. During his incarceration, authorities subjected his family to immense pressure, and even threatened to orchestrate a car accident in order to injure them, in order to get him to confess to his supposed crime. Chen began to fear that they might be taken as hostages, and officials restricted her ability to travel and barred the couple’s 15 year-old daughter from going to Hong Kong.

Additionally, authorities robbed their bank account, took the passports of Chen’s father and sister, and confiscated her cell phone. As a result, Chen plans to hire lawyers and sue the government and all those who assisted them as accessories to crime.

As the persecution continued to escalate, Chen realized that she and her daughters could no longer stay in China and fled to the United States. The night before she wrote the letter, Chen received a call from Xie, who urged her to come home, but she refused, since it is currently too dangerous for her and her two daughters.

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