ChinaAid: Tortured legal assistant breaks silence on human rights crackdown

Li Heping (right), a Christian human rights lawyer and Zhao 
Wei's boss, aged nearly 20 years during the two years he was
imprisoned for his work, primarily due to torture. 
(Photo: ChinaAid)

(Beijing—May 23, 2017) The youngest legal assistant arrested as part of a nationwide crackdown on human rights recently broke her silence to write an emotional letter to colleagues imprisoned with her, describing the enormous burden of the torture they endured and inviting them to join with her to end China’s abuses.

In the letter, Zhao Wei, a 26-year-old legal assistant arrested connection with the human rights crackdown known as the 709 case, describes her struggle to break through the fear and torture that defined her imprisonment in order to take her first steps into speaking out against injustice. She notes the resilient love of her parents, which prompted them to travel the nation to free her, explains her inability to win the fight for China’s freedom on her own, and encourages the activists who underwent similar experiences to stand with her.


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