Wang Youcai's Trial Imminent - What You Can Do (HRW Update Dec 9, 1998)

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China & Tibet - Human Rights Watch World Report 1999 Chapter

Wang Youcai's Trial Imminent
Keep Trial Open To Public And Press
Your Help Urgently Needed

Wang Youcai is to tried on December 17 on charges of "incitement to overthrow the state." According to his wife, the trial is scheduled for Hangzhou (Zhejiang province) Intermediate Court. Wang is the first to face trial of the three dissidents now in custody for their attempts to register China's first opposition party, the Chinese Democracy Party.

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It is urgent that Wang's trial be open to the public, to domestic and foreign press, and to independent legal observers.

Please immediately fax, e-mail or send an express letter to the chief judicial officer in your country urging him/her to contact the Chinese Minister of Justice to request just such an open trial. His contact information is:

His Excellency Gao Changli
Minister of Justice
Beijingshi 100016
People's Republic of China
fax: 86-10-6520-5316
telephone: 86-10-6520-5114

Be sure to send a copy of your letter to the Chinese ambassador to your country.

In your fax or e-mail, you might want to mention that:

the right to a public trial is constitutionally guaranteed to all Chinese citizens.
it is also guaranteed by Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which China signed in October 1998.
opening the trial would help implement the December 2 announcement by Xiao Yang, the president of the Supreme Court. He remarked that judicial reform would be a high priority as "part of the ongoing political restructuring in China" and added that the reforms would include opening court proceedings to the public in order to increase the public's understanding of the judicial process and to ease citizens' complaints.

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