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China activist lawyer Xu Zhiyong on trial | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Xu Zhiyong, a prominent human rights lawyer who campaigned against corruption, has gone on trial in China. | |
Mr Xu is charged with "gathering crowds to disrupt public order". He is one of several activists from a transparency movement to be tried this week. | |
Rights groups have criticised President Xi Jinping - who pledged to fight corruption - over their trials. | Rights groups have criticised President Xi Jinping - who pledged to fight corruption - over their trials. |
They come as a report says many members of China's elite have set up offshore companies in overseas tax havens. | |
The trial of Xu Zhiyong, who was arrested in July 2013, began on Wednesday in Beijing. | |
Mr Xu, who was also previously under house arrest, is a leading advocate of a group campaigning for government officials to reveal their wealth. | Mr Xu, who was also previously under house arrest, is a leading advocate of a group campaigning for government officials to reveal their wealth. |
Seven members of the informal grassroots group, New Citizens Movement, also face separate trials this week on similar charges. | |
'Hypocritical crackdown' | |
A known legal scholar, Mr Xu also campaigned on behalf of inmates on death row and families affected by tainted baby milk formula in 2009. | |
In a video message from prison last year, he urged compatriots to unite in pursuing democratic freedoms. | In a video message from prison last year, he urged compatriots to unite in pursuing democratic freedoms. |
No matter how "absurd" society was, he said, "this country needs brave citizens who can stand up and hold fast to their convictions". | No matter how "absurd" society was, he said, "this country needs brave citizens who can stand up and hold fast to their convictions". |
Critics say Xi Jinping's promise to crack down on corruption, made in 2012 after he assumed power, has not allowed room for public dissent. | |
Rights group Amnesty International condemned what it called China's "hypocritical crackdown on anti-corruption campaigners". | Rights group Amnesty International condemned what it called China's "hypocritical crackdown on anti-corruption campaigners". |
"Instead of President Xi Jinping's promised clampdown on corruption, we are seeing a crackdown against those that want to expose it," Roseann Rife, East Asia research director, said in a statement on Tuesday. | "Instead of President Xi Jinping's promised clampdown on corruption, we are seeing a crackdown against those that want to expose it," Roseann Rife, East Asia research director, said in a statement on Tuesday. |
Xu Zhiyong was a "prisoner of conscience and he should be released immediately and unconditionally", Ms Rife added. | Xu Zhiyong was a "prisoner of conscience and he should be released immediately and unconditionally", Ms Rife added. |
"Anything less would make a mockery of the Chinese government's ongoing anti-corruption efforts." | "Anything less would make a mockery of the Chinese government's ongoing anti-corruption efforts." |
Meanwhile, a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists said relatives of many of China's political elite, including the brother-in-law of Mr Xi, and the son and son-in-law of former Premier Wen Jiabao, owned offshore companies in international tax havens. | |
It said that almost 22,000 offshore clients with addresses in mainland China and Hong Kong appear in leaked documents from two off-shore firms that set up offshore companies and accounts for clients. |