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Detained Chinese human rights lawyer’s wife fights on, still unsure of his whereabouts
- Almost two years after Yu Wensheng vanished, authorities continue to prevent his family and lawyer seeing him, and court has no record of his case
- The treatment of Yu, amid a crackdown on rights lawyers and activists, highlights the murkiness of China’s legal system
Reading Time:3 minutes
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With winter approaching, Xu Yan brought some warm clothes and money for her husband to a detention centre in eastern China, though she is not even sure the arrested human rights lawyer is still being held there.
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Xu, 37, has travelled some 20 times from Beijing to Xuzhou in Jiangsu province in a vain struggle to get any information about Yu Wensheng after he was taken into custody last year.
Her plight highlights the frustrations, fears and obstacles faced by the families of lawyers and activists who fall foul of the authorities and vanish into China’s selectively opaque legal system.
Xu returned again this week, joining the queue at the Xuzhou City Detention Centre with other people bringing plastic bags bulging with thick duvets and jumpers for inmates.
Along with Yu’s lawyers, she then made another failed attempt to get information from court officials.
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“I still cannot check where my husband is or the status of his case,” said Xu, crying as she held a photo of Yu and a sign demanding to see the judge responsible for his case outside the Xuzhou Intermediate People’s Court on Thursday.
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