31 May 2008
Chinese lawyers unable to renew licenses
(AP) Mainland Chinese lawyers known for defending rights have been unable to get their licenses renewed ahead of an annual deadline, a Hong Kong group has said. China Human Rights Lawyers' Concern Group chairman Albert Ho identified three of the lawyers at a news conference, and said there were others whom he didn't want to name because he didn't want to jeopardise their status. Ho said it wasn't clear exactly how many lawyers were still unable to renew their licenses. The three lawyers who Ho said agreed to be identified were Teng Biao and Li Heping from Beijing and Zhang Jiankang from the city of Xian. In a separate statement, the US-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) named another lawyer, Jiang Tianyong. It said Teng and Jiang had both offered to represent Tibetans and had "distinguished records of defending civil and human rights cases". Ho said originally a larger group of more than 500 lawyers from 10 law firms in different parts of China could not get their licenses renewed, albeit a "substantial" number of them - but not all - were able to do so after the lawyers issued a letter on the Internet drawing attention to the issue. He said the affected firms were mostly "activist" ones known for defending rights. Some represented Tibetans detained in the Chinese crackdown on riots in Tibet in March, he said.