61-Year Old Human Rights Lawyer Criminally Detained in Shenyang

China Change, October 31, 2017

On the afternoon of October 31, lawyer Li Yuhan’s (李昱函) family revealed that she had been criminally detained by Shenyang Public Security Bureau. The charges against her are unclear.

She was last heard from on October 9 when she texted her younger brother that she had been taken away by police from Shenyang PSB Heping District.

Over the past three weeks, her relatives called the municipal government offices for her whereabouts.

She is one of the two lawyers who have represented lawyer Wang Yu (王宇), the first human rights lawyer detained during the massive 709 Crackdown on human rights lawyers. During Wang Yu’s detention, lawyer Li made numerous trips to Tianjin to try to meet her client but to no avail as with other 709 detainees. Her children, even her in-laws, were harassed as a result of her doing her job as a lawyer.

In late June, she and lawyer Wen Donghai visited Wang Yu in Inner Mongolia where she had been under house arrest since her released from detention in Tianjin around mid-year.

The news of her criminal detention caused a stir among 709 wives whom lawyer Li Yuhan has befriended.

In 2014 she represented a former policewoman and a petitioner from southern Anhui province who was detained for giving an interview to the Washington Post about China’s petitioning system and whether it helps solve social problems.

She also represented Falun Gong practitioners charged with “using [a] cult to sabotage the enforcement of the law.”

Heilongjiang-based lawyer Wang Qiushi (王秋实) will go to Shenyang to try to meet with Li Yuhan.

In 2006, while practicing in Shenyang, she complained to the authorities about a man who possessed guns and evaded taxes and who harassed her clients. The wealthy man was well connected with local government officials, including the police, and her whistleblowing resulted in herself being beaten and harassed by Shenyang police over the years. More than once, she was treated as a petitioner, locked up in the petitioner camp in Beijing, and forcibly taken back by Shenyang police.

Li Yuhan has heart disease, and in March of this year, she underwent major surgery.

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