Dharamsala, August 24 – Leading Chinese rights lawyer, Xu Zhiyong, was freed Sunday but may face prosecution if he does not pay a fine for alleged tax evasion, according to media reports. His assistant Zhuang Lu was freed on Saturday.
Xu Zhiyong was detained on July 29 and formally arrested on August 12 after Chinese government shut down the legal research centre “Gongmeng” or “Open Constitution Initiative” that he co-founded with other lawyers mostly engaged in human rights cases. Lawyers associated with the Gongmeng group have made a name after taking up high profile compensation cases, including cases linked to the tainted milk scandal that shook the nation in 2008.
On July 17 this year, officials from Beijing’s Civil Affairs Bureau stormed into the offices of the Gongmeng rights group’s legal research center and confiscated computers and other equipment, according to the AP. Beijing tax bureau fined Gongmeng 1.4 million yuan ($206,000) for failing to pay taxes.
Rights groups believe the government’s tightening control on lawyers, activists and non-governmental organizations is part of a widening crackdown on dissent ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Communist Party on October 1.
The Beijing tax bureau fined it 1.4 million yuan ($206,000) for failing to pay taxes. According to the Voice of America, One of the government’s main charges against Xu’s group is the alleged evasion of tax on a $100,000 grant it received from Yale University where Xu has been a visiting scholar.
Zhou Ze, Xu’s lawyer, said, his client might escape prosecution if he pays the fine for tax evasion levied against him. “I believe he won’t be in other kinds of trouble.”
Xu told AFP that he would be allowed to leave Beijing while authorities probed the case but would have to get permission first.
In another case, the outspoken Uighur economist who taught in Beijing, Ilham Tohti, was released the same day, reported the Associated Press citing a friend of Tohti, Huang Zhangjin. Tohti was detained days after deadly rioting broke out in the western region of Xinjiang last month. His website in Chinese language was used by people to speak out their views about Xinjiang.
The releases of the three come a day after the newly appointed US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, announced President Barack Obama’s visit to Beijing in November.
