Amnesty International has called for an end to the repression of lawyers and activists on the first anniversary of the the "709 Crackdown", which led to the detention of 248 people. Many of those arrested in the July 9th operation are still in custody on state subversion charges.
China has seen growing persecution of human rights lawyers and civil society reformers under President Xi Jinping, as well as increased curbs on social gatherings and ever-tighter control of the media and the internet.
One positive development was the news of the release of Zhao Wei, a legal assistant to the prominent jailed lawyer Li Heping.
At 24, Ms Zhao was the youngest detainee. She was reportedly sexually assaulted during her detention. Her release on bail came almost a year after she was taken away and the charges against her have not been revealed.
Tianjin police said on social media that Ms Wei had requested bail and "made candid confessions and exhibited good behaviour."
On her own Weibo account Ms Wei posted: “I just want to enjoy some peace, enjoy happy times with my mum and dad. There are many feelings which I am willing to slowly share with everybody.”
The crackdown, which began on July 9th last year with the detention of the prominent Beijing lawyer Wang Yu and went on for several days, was centred on the Beijing law firm Fengrui, which has defended victims of sexual abuse as well as religious activists and other dissidents.
The authorities describe Fengrui as being at the heart of "a major criminal gang" and four lawyers from the firm, including Wang and her husband Bao Longjun, face up to 15 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power".
Police surveillance
The couple’s teenage son,
Bao Zhuoxuan
, remains under close police surveillance after he was captured by Chinese security forces in
Myanmar
in October last year as he tried to take up his studies abroad. State TV channel CCTV broadcast the distraught reaction of the parents as they were told of their son’s failed attempt to flee.
The lawyers are being held in isolation in a high-security facility in Tianjin. Earlier this week, five spouses of those in custody protested outside the national prosecutors office in Beijing wearing dresses bearing their husbands’ names.
"Human rights lawyers have faced the full wrath of China's secretive machinery of repression. The detained lawyers must be released and this systemic assault against individuals defending the rights of Chinese people must end," said Roseann Rife, East Asia research director at Amnesty International.
“Lawyers play a crucial role in protecting human rights and the rule of law, and the authorities must stop arresting them by the dozens and misusing state security laws against them,” Ms Rife said.
Separately, China's top court has begun broadcasting all of its open trials live online, part of efforts to improve transparency in the judiciary, which answers to the ruling Communist Party.
"From court hearing to press coverage and to livestreaming by internet and TV, this is another breakthrough for open trials," said Jing Hanchao, vice president of China's Supreme People's Court.
