Forgot your password?
Follow Fair Trials Of Accused
By Kathmandu Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
New York based Human Rights Watch has said that the trials of 21 defendants accused of participating in the violent July 2009 protests in Urumqi held on October 12, 2009 by the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court of China did not meet minimum international standards of due process and fair trials.
The court has tried and sentenced 14 men on October 14, six to the death penalty, others to 10 years of imprisonment. The court has held all the trials without a prior public notification in less than a day.
"There is no doubt that serious criminal acts were committed in July's unrest in Xinjiang, but it serves neither justice nor stability for the government to ignore minimum standards of due process," said Sophie Richardson, Asia Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch. "The lack of transparency about how these trials were conducted undermines confidence in the verdicts."
In violation of the right to choose one's own lawyer, judicial authorities in Urumqi and Beijing on July 11, 2009 effectively warned lawyers against accepting these cases instructing them to exercise caution in dealing with cases related to the riots. The notice also banned lawyers from making comments on the cases to the media or on the Internet. On August 9, Ren Guoshen, the vice-head of the Urumqi legal aid services told Xinhua that the lawyers appointed to defend protesters had been chosen not only for their legal skills but also for "their good political qualities." The selection of judicial personnel on political criteria is a clear contravention of the right to be judged by an "independent and impartial tribunal" under international law.
In violation of China's own criminal procedure law, the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court failed to give public notification of the upcoming trials of the first July 5 cases and to hold open public trials. How many people attended the court hearings was unknown; neither foreign journalists nor international observers were allowed to attend the hearings. In past cases, the authorities have often arbitrarily restricted attendance to sensitive trials, selecting court personnel and civil servants to make up the audience.
Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all cases, and has also expressed concern about the fate of hundreds more people officially arrested and detained since the riots. Information about their whereabouts remains unclear.
"Chinese authorities failed to keep repeated promises to the public and the international community to hold fair trials, consistent with the law," said Richardson. "No one should confuse these proceedings with justice."
