Updated October 19, 2009 12:54:04
China has handed out death sentences to 12 people accused of taking part in the violent July protests in Urumqi, in China’s western Xinjiang region.The July riot left almost 200 people dead and 1600 injured.
Chinese authorities had promised an open and fair legal proceedings against the suspects, but this has been disputed by human rights organisations.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Phelim Kine, Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong.
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KINE: Unfortunately, contrary to the Chinese government’s original promises that these trials would be open to the public and have free access, they were absolutely not. They were closed, foreign journalists were not invited or allowed to attend, nor were international observers.
LAM: Well, the Chinese authorities argued that the trials were fair, certainly the first two trials, because the defendants were given the option of appointing their own lawyers and indeed, four of them I understand did. Was that not at least a gesture of good faith by the Chinese authorities?
KINE: Well unfortunately, there is evidence that lawyers were warned off from taking on cases of Urumqi rioters. So there was definitely, even for those individuals who might have wanted to appoint their own lawyers, there was a very limited pool, because the Chinese Government had sent out the word that it was not in lawyers’ best interest to take on such cases…