Li Heping

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Li Heping ( Chinese  李 和平 , Pinyin Lǐ Hépíng ) is a lawyer in the People's Republic of China and a partner in the Beijing Global Law Firm. Li is married to the lawyer Wang Qiaoling ( 王 峭 嶺 ). Li is a well-known figure in the Chinese Weiquan (Legal Defense) Movement who has defended Christians in hiding, persecuted Falun Gong practitioners , dissident writers and evicted victims. He was arrested on July 10, 2015. After 19 months in prison, he was released on April 25, 2017 and sentenced to a suspended sentence for “subversion of state authority”.

Lawyer

Li began his civil rights defense career in the late 1990s and emerged as an avid critic of the Chinese Communist Party's policies and practices against unregistered religious groups. He appealed on behalf of other prominent Weiquan lawyers, such as Chen Guangcheng and Gao Zhisheng , and defended dissident Yang Zili and environmental activist Tan Kai . Li also took on and defended the victims of the forced land confiscation in China. Li identifies as a Christian and is a member of the editorial board of the journal Chinese Law and Religion Monitor , published by the Aid Association of China .

Harassment and Detention

As with many Chinese human rights activists and dissidents, Li is subject to various forms of intimidation and harassment by Chinese security forces. On September 28th, 2007, Li and his family were threatened by the Beijing Public Security Bureau that they would have to leave Beijing. The next day, September 29th, he was abducted by 12 men in plain clothes and held for eight hours. Li was reportedly beaten and beaten with electric batons by these men while they kept telling him to leave Beijing. Li was then released in a forest. Upon returning home, he found that his home had been ransacked, his bar license stolen, and his computer reformatted. When Li tried to visit lawyer Tang Jitian on May 31, 2010 , he was again abducted and interrogated by the security forces. In 2011, Li told USA Today in an interview that his home was under constant surveillance and that up to four police officers would follow him wherever he went.

Arrested in 2015

Li was arrested at his law office on July 10, 2015 by several people in plain clothes, who were apparently members of the State Security Services, without explanation. They brought him home, where he could only hand over his house key to his wife before he was taken away again. In the days after his disappearance, two other lawyers tried to locate his detention center. They went to police stations and detention centers in northern China where he may have been held. His assistant, Zhao Wei, was abducted around the same time. Li's wife, Wang Qiaoling, asked various authorities about her husband's whereabouts, but was not given any information. A short time later, a house search took place during which various items (books, telephones, computers, etc.) from Li's property were confiscated. In the period that followed, despite official warnings, Ms. Wang turned to the international press several times to draw attention to her husband's fate.

Dismissal and sentencing in 2017

On April 25, 2017, Li Heping was released. On April 28, 2017, the Tianjin Second Intermediate People's Court announced that he had been sentenced to three years' imprisonment for subversion and was suspended for four years. The verdict stated that Li had used social and foreign media since 2008 to "denigrate and attack state organs and the legal system." He used money from abroad to “influence important cases” and worked with a number of other people who also “represented subversive ideas”. Among them were lawyers and people who were "involved in illegal religious activities". Regarding the conditions of his detention, Li later reported that he had been wearing a handcuff continuously for a month, his hand and foot were chained so tightly that he could only move in a stooped position.

International recognition

Li has received a number of international awards in recognition of his civil rights work in China. In 2008 he was awarded the National Endowment for Democracy Foundation and received the Democracy Prize for Religious Freedom , and in the same year the Human Rights Prize from The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) (Council of Lawyers and Law Firms of Europe).

Lawyers and activists detained in China

On July 22, 2015, the New York Times reported that over 200 lawyers and their allies were jailed in the 709 wave of arrests, and many are still in custody. Human Rights Watch reported on April 3, 2016 that others were arrested by the authorities, including lawyers Wang Yu , Zhou Shifeng , Li Shuyun, and Xie Yanyi , as well as legal assistant Liu Sixin and activists Hu Shigen and Gou Hongguo . Li's wife, Wang Qiaoling, appeared as the spokesperson for the families of human rights lawyers detained in China during the wave of 709 arrests. For this she was awarded the Franco-German Human Rights Prize on December 1, 2016 , which led to diplomatic resentment between Germany, France and China. As of December 2nd, Ms. Wang was no longer available.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Terence Halliday, My friend Li Heping, a man China thinks is 'more dangerous than Bin Laden' , The Guardian, June 8, 2016, accessed November 9, 2016
  2. ↑ a b c Biographies - Li Heping ( Memento of March 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), National Endowment for Democracy, 2008, web.archive.org, accessed on November 9, 2016
  3. ↑ a b China appoints German and French envoys , Spiegel Online, December 2, 2016, accessed on December 4, 2016
  4. ↑ a b Document - China: Fear for Safety: Li Heping (M) ( Memento of February 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Amnesty International, October 3, 2007, web.archive.org, accessed on November 9, 2016
  5. ^ A b Christian Attorney Li Heping Interrogated by Police , China Aid, June 1, 2010, accessed November 9, 2016
  6. ↑ Calum MacLeod, Chinese activists disappear amid calls for protests , USA Today, March 3, 2011, accessed November 9, 2016
  7. ↑ Tom Phillips, Wife of Chinese human rights lawyer missing for six months tells of despair , theguardian, January 11, 2016, accessed November 9, 2016
  8. ↑ Tom Phillips, The day Zhao Wei disappeared: how a young law graduate was caught in China's human rights dragnet , theguardian, January 25, 2016, accessed November 9, 2016
  9. ^ John Sudworth: Wang Qiaoling's battle to find missing lawyer husband, Li Heping. BBC News, September 9, 2015, accessed December 31, 2018 .
  10. ↑ China human rights lawyer Li Heping given suspended jail term. BBC News, April 28, 2017, accessed December 31, 2018 .
  11. ^ John Sudworth: Chinese lawyer 'wore torture device for a month'. BBC News, April 28, 2017, accessed December 31, 2018 .
  12. ↑ CCBE Human Rights Award granted jointly to a Chinese lawyer, Li Heping, and to the group of Spanish lawyers who intervened in the 11/3 Madrid bombing trial , The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, November 27, 2008, accessed on November 9, 2016
  13. ↑ Andrew Jacobs and Chris Buckley, China Targeting Rights Lawyers in a Crackdown , The New York Times, July 22, 2015, accessed November 9, 2016
  14. ↑ China: Detained Lawyers, Activists Denied Basic Rights , Human Rights Watch, Hrw.org, April 3, 2016, accessed November 9, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Li Heping
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 李 和平
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Attorney in the People's Republic of China, partner in Beijing Global Law Firm
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century