The Chinese government has cut off access of lawyers to leading human rights advocate, Liu Xianbin, 42. He was charged in June for subversion for “incitement to subvert state power” for his articles that included his reflections on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the arrest of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo.
China jailed Liu Xiaobo for 11 years as part of its longstanding crackdown on free speech and dissent.
Of course, the United States once had the moral high ground to denounce such abuses until the Bush Administration denied detainees access to lawyers and held them indefinitely without trial.
Former Bush officials like Georgetown Professor Viet Dinh and California law professor John Yoo insisted that detainees could be denied access to the courts and counsel. After returning to academic, Dinh suggested that a few more rights might be acceptable.
The Obama Administration has further diminished our ability to criticize China by announcing its support for indefinite detention and its cover up of the Bush torture program.
Source: Reuters
Not much different than China at all
At this rate we will probably have government murdering citizens.
And they are how much different than we?
The 10th Circuit found no fault with the magistrates’ report and recommendation in my D of CO 02-cv-1950 case. The R&R is on PACER atCase 1:05-cv-01283-RMU Document 27-3 Filed 09/08/2005 Page 16 of 26:
“statements of attorneys that are made during or in preparation for judicial proceedings are absolutely privileged even if defamatory and cannot form the basis of a lawsuit against the attorney…. plaintiffs cannot state a claim against Mr. Brougham for any statements he allegedly made in relation to the events surrounding this lawsuit.
In fact, plaintiffs admit that they are fully aware that lawyers cannot be sued for their actions as advocates…
Plaintiffs’ claims that they were owed duties by the lawyers, law firms, or the Bar Associations are beyond frivolous. Their claims are downright absurd.”
One reason that my lawsuit in federal court was dismissed is that I argued that lawyers didn’t have a right to immunity from suit when they engage in a conspiracy with their clients. I was ridiculed for that.
kay:
Amen.