Protect lawyers' rights to safeguard rule of law

TWO LAWYERS from Beijing were violently attacked in broad daylight just 50 meters away from the court where they had been representing the plaintiff in an illegal demolition case in Jingmen, Central China's Hubei province, on Dec 6. Ten people were seized and put on trial, and their ringleader, the person in charge of the demolition work, was sentenced 22 months imprisonment on Wednesday. Thepaper.cn comments:

Justice has been served in the trial of the thugs, which drew wide concern, not least from the judicial and public security authorities and the All China Lawyers Association, which have viewed the attack on the lawyers as an insult to the rule of law.

The case has cast light on the environment in which lawyers have to work in China. The profession has long been stigmatized, and legal practitioners are often depicted as either sellers of their souls to the highest bidder or else troublemakers. It is not uncommon for those lawyers who are diligently upholding the law and defending the downtrodden to be threatened by various forms of power and meet many forces of resistance.