Campaigner denied access to legal counsel for two months
Lawyers for Huang Qi , who campaigns for parents of children killed in the Sichuan earthquake, were finally allowed to see the dissident yesterday, but they were still denied access to prosecution documents.
Huang was detained in Chengdu on June 10 and formally arrested on a charge of 'illegal possession of state secrets' on July 18. He had been denied access to legal counsel until yesterday.
The authorities had promised lawyers they could see Huang after two months' detention but the meeting at the Chengdu Detention Centre only happened after four days of repeated demands by defence lawyers.
Defence counsel Mao Shaoping said Huang had told him that he was first questioned on his reports and photos on the May 12 earthquake, which were published on the website that he had set up, only after the beginning of his detention.
'Afterwards he was also grilled over a few documents that he had saved in his computer, which have been used as evidence for the charge of illegal possession of state secrets,' said Mr Mao, who along with fellow counsel Ding Xikui visited Huang yesterday morning. The nature of the documents was not disclosed because of the ongoing legal procedures.
'Huang Qi also said he was subjected to 24 hours of continuous questioning, which is tantamount to trying to extort evidence through coercion,' he said.
