(Suzhou, Jiangsu Province – March 7, 2024) The latest news indicates that the case of the prominent Beijing human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng has been returned for further investigation by the Suzhou People’s Procuratorate.
Mr. Yu Wensheng and his wife, Ms. Xu Yan, were transferred from Beijing to Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, for detention last month. Their case was transferred to the Suzhou People’s Procuratorate for review and prosecution. News on the 20th revealed that the Suzhou People’s Procuratorate stated that Yu Wensheng’s case has been returned for further investigation.
According to Chinese legal procedures, returning a case for supplementary investigation during the review and prosecution stage indicates that the procuratorate believes that the facts of the case are unclear, the evidence of guilt is insufficient, and the case does not meet the standards for prosecution. Therefore, it is returned to the investigating authority for supplementary investigation.
This may be a sign that coercive measures are loosening. The international community hopes that Yu Wensheng will be released. However, the return for further investigation may also lead to an extension of the pre-trial detention period, which cannot be confirmed at this time.
Yu Wensheng’s case is straightforward, and the arrest of Yu Wensheng and his wife, Xu Yan, is purely politically motivated. There is no need to return the case for further investigation, and they should be released immediately. In April last year, the couple was intercepted and summoned by plainclothes police while en route to meet with an European Union delegation in China and immediately criminally detained on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” They were subsequently charged with “inciting subversion of state power.”
The detention of Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan is a disastrous blow to China’s diplomatic image. Currently, Yu Wensheng is detained at the First Detention Center of Suzhou City, while Xu Yan is detained at the Fourth Detention Center of Suzhou City.
