Yu Wensheng | Germany urges release of detained human rights lawyer

Germany is calling on China to release a prominent human rights lawyer charged with inciting subversion, drawing a sharp rebuke from Beijing.

German Human Rights Commissioner Barbel Kofler this week said Yu Wensheng is innocent of wrongdoing and had only sought to campaign for democratic reforms and “support fellow citizens who were harassed for exercising their human rights.”

“I call on the Chinese government to release Yu Wensheng without delay, and to fully respect the civil rights guaranteed in the Chinese Constitution,” Kofler said in a statement posted on the website of the German Federal Foreign Office.

Asked about Kofler’s comments, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying gave no details about Yu’s case, but said China would “firmly oppose any foreign government or individual in an attempt to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”

“The relevant German official is absolutely not qualified or entitled to ask China to release anyone involved,” Hua said.

Yu, an informal spokesman for a group of Chinese human rights lawyers, was grabbed by police on Jan. 19 while preparing to take his 13-year-old son to school.

Police informed Yu’s wife of the charge against him on Saturday, lawyer Huang Hanzhong said. Inciting subversion is a vaguely worded charge often used to muzzle dissent and sometimes results in years-long prison sentences. AP