Old Tricks: The Authorities Break Rules on Access to Lawyer

As is already well known, the authorities are ignoring the rights of the arrested Liaoyang workers' representatives by denying them access to defense lawyers. Throughout the legal process, they have denied defence lawyer Mo Shaoping reasonable access to his client, Yao Fuxin.

On October 10, just three working days prior to the trial Mo finally saw his client for the first time. During an interview, the defence lawyer of fellow workers' representative XiaoYunliang reacted angrily to this deprivation of rights.

XiaoYunliang's brother Xiao Yunji has acted as his lawyer since his brother’s detention. The authorities failed to notify Xiao Yunji when the Liaoyang Procuratorate handed over details of his client's case to the court on December 27, 2002 and the defense lawyer only discovered this vital information through his own inquiries to the relevant departments. Articles of China's Law on Criminal Procedure stipulate that in order to further protect the interests of those involved, defence lawyers must be informed of all such indictments.

On January 7, 2003, lawyer Xiao Yunji made inquiries to check if the case was still scheduled for January 15, as family members of Yao Fuxin had informed him. The court official replied that no decision had been taken. On the evening of January 10, he suddenly received notification that the case would be held on January 15. Xiao Yunji expressed dissatisfaction with this late notification, only two working days before the trial. According to Article 151 clause 5 of the Law on Criminal Procedure, the court is obliged "to announce, three days before the opening of the session, the subject matter of the case to be heard in public, the name of the defendant and the time and place of the court session."

If the accused's defence lawyer, Xiao Yunji, was unable to obtain three days notice of the trial date then certainly the authorities failed to fulfill their duty to guarantee the citizens of Liaoyang who are following this case, their rightd to thid information? In fact, when CLB telephoned the Liaoyang People's Intermediate Court on January 13, a court official told us that no date had been set and they were "awaiting a decision from the leaders".

January 15 - The Case is Hastily Heard

An atmosphere of fear pervades the hearing

The fact that hardly any workers were allowed to enter the courtroom has caused great anger and regret. Only twenty supporters, including family members, were allowed access to the proceedings. Government officials and plainclothes police took the remaining two hundred or more seats. When she tried to get tickets, Yao Dan (Yao Fuxin's daughter) was told by a police official that the court was only able to allocate three tickets to the family members. This was because dignitaries from the National People's Congress, the Political Consultative Conference, the city government… and many other officials would be attending the hearing.

On the day of the trial, the police cordoned off the area around the court. With fear in her heart, Yao Dan told us “on the day of the trial all four roads were blocked by the police from five o'clock in the morning onwards…the security checks were terrifying and there were as many as nine or ten check points. Even the lawyer Mo Shaoping was subjected to four or five checks and asked to produce his I.D. card and work status card when making his way to the court. Only when he produced his lawyer's I.D. card was he allowed to proceed. Even so, he could not go any further until a representative from the court came out and accompanied him."

Solidarity

Despite the iron-fisted policy the Chinese government is employing to oppress the workers' representatives, they have been unable to prevent Liaoyang's workers from expressing support. Yao Dan told us that there has been a stream of workers visiting the families of the two accused representatives. When Xiao Yunliang entered the court he raised his hands aloft to express his thanks to supporters and the atmosphere was profoundly moving. A worker from the Ferroalloy Factory in the courtroom began to cry, causing others to become emotional. The crying worker was removed from the court.

As the daughter of the charged workers' representative Yao Fuxin, Yao Dan told us that she had already psychologically prepared herself for the worst. She pointed out that if her father was "guilty" of contacting foreign media organisations as charged, then so was she and as such faced being sent to prison as well. "If the day comes when I cannot be contacted by telephone, this may mean that I have been detained…from the experience of my father's case and Mo's defence, I do not believe that contact with foreigners is a crime." She expressed her thanks to all those who had telephoned her to express support and how moved she had been by this concern. "Your expressions of concern have been even more important than economic assistance."

China Labour Bulletin

January 24, 2003