China: PWD and pro-democracy blogger faces unfair trial
Event- Country
- China
- Initial Date
- Nov 20, 2020
- Event Description
Activist Zhou Weilin (周维林) went on trial on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” on November 20, 2020 in a closed-door hearing at Feidong County Court in Anhui Province. Guards blocked the entrance to the courthouse and lawyers Liang Xiaojun (梁小军) and Wu Li (吴莉) had to be escorted inside by the trial judge. The court refused to allow Zhou’s supporters inside to observe or testify in his defence. Zhou and his lawyers were allowed to speak during the trial. The hearing ended without a sentence being pronounced. The charges against Zhou are related to his comments on Twitter and for writing articles for the human rights website Rights Defence Network (维权网). Police initially detained Zhou on March 12, 2020 and he has been held at Feidong County Detention Center.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial
- Enactment of repressive legislation and policies
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 31.877012080838092
Longitude: 117.32854901728132
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 20 November 2020, Zhou Weilin, pro-democracy blogger affected by handicap, challenged vague charges in an unfair trial for writing online about human rights issues by a court in Feidong, China.
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