Jailed Lawyer's Wife Says Trial Court Has No Data

The wife of jailed human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang was stopped from approaching the top court in Beijing on Thursday, after she claimed a lower court told her that it has no information on the trial that led to his sentence.

Wang's wife, Li Wenzu, was barred from going anywhere near the Supreme People's Court building in Beijing.

Li said officials at the Tianjin Second Intermediate People’s Court, where Wang's trial was held earlier this year, told her that their database has no information about the case.

After a closed-door trial in January, the court sentenced 42-year-old Wang to four and a half years in jail for subversion.

Li said she wants the supreme court to look into whether the Tianjin court had mishandled her husband's case.

She told RTHK that she went to the Tianjin court several days ago to seek clarification on her husband's trial, only to be told that there is no such information at all.

Li said they told her that their database doesn't have anything related to his case.

She was not allowed to attend the January trial, nor has she been given a chance to see her husband since his arrest in 2015.

She described the case as "ridiculous", and said she has no idea how her husband is doing, or whether he's even alive.

Wang was among the hundreds of human rights lawyers and activists rounded up on the mainland in the so-called “709 crackdown”, which started on July 9 four years ago.