Defense slams hurdles in China activist's trial

November 28, 2006|By New York Times News Service.

BEIJING — A Chinese legal expert who exposed abuses in the country's population-control policies began a rare second trial Monday, but his lawyers accused local authorities of preventing them from mounting a vigorous defense.

Chen Guangcheng, 34, was sentenced in August to 51 months in prison by a county court in Shandong province for destroying property and organizing a mob to disrupt traffic.

A higher court later quashed the verdict and ordered a new trial, which some supporters of Chen cited as a breakthrough for China's judicial system.

But the first day of the new trial, held in the same county court, ended in acrimony. Several of Chen's most important witnesses were prevented from attending the hearing by thugs who had the backing of local officials, his lawyers said, and the judges declined to grant a defense request to delay the trial.

The lawyers said the witnesses, residents of Chen's village, were prepared to testify that police tortured them to provide false evidence against Chen. But three witnesses were detained before the trial began and none of them could attend the hearing, they said.

Chen, who has been blind since childhood, taught himself the law and became a campaigner for peasant rights. For a time he was hailed as a barefoot lawyer who helped legal norms take root in China's countryside.

But in 2005, he sought to organize a class-action lawsuit on behalf of people forced to undergo late-term abortions or sterilization operations in a mass crackdown aimed at limiting population growth.