Suspects detained over ‘paid-for protests’
Print Edition
POLICE have published details of a series of so-called “rights protection” incidents, in which detainees are suspected of illegally organizing paid protests, hyping public sentiment and fabricating rumors on the Internet to sway court decisions.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Public Security on Saturday, the suspects consist of lawyers as the core organizers and social media celebrities and petitioners, who are in charge of planning and implementation.
The ministry accused the group, led by the Fengrui Law Firm, of disrupting public order and seeking profits by illegally hiring protesters and swaying court decisions in the name of “defending justice and public interests.”
Since July 2012, the group had organized more than 40 controversial incidents and severely disrupted public order, it claimed.
In one high-profile case, a police shooting at a railway station in Heilongjiang Province was flaunted as a murder conspiracy, it said.
Zhai Yanmin, one of the organizers of the group, said it was first the lawyers’ job to hype up an incident, the ministry said.
One instance came after police officer Li Lebin shot dead Xu Chunhe on May 2 at Qing’an County Railway Station. Xu is said to have attacked Li several times and was shot after multiple warnings. Lawyers spread rumors that “Li opened fire at Xu under the order of an official because Xu was a petitioner.” They also raised placards at Qing’an Railway Station and kept pressuring local officials.
Then the job shifted to social media celebrities and petitioners. Wu Gan, known for stirring controversial incidents, posted messages on his social media account, offering 100,000 yuan (US$16,100) for any video clips that caught the “truth” of the incident.
Zhai then hired “petitioners” to shout slogans or sit quietly and raise signs in support of the lawyers, the ministry said. According to one suspect surnamed Li, she was paid 600 yuan for carrying a sign onsite.
The ministry said there were others responsible for filming scenes of “mass incidents” and posting them on some overseas websites to manipulate public opinion.
“They have been following the protocol in hyping up such incidents since 2013, when I first entered the business,” said Zhai, adding that many of his peers were resentful of the Party and the government and took pride in being detained by the police.
The suspects had turned common matters into hot issues and controversial incidents into political ones, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, Zhou Shifeng, director of the Fengrui Law Firm, elevated the firm’s popularity while the lawyers earned more commission fees. Internet celebrities such as Wu made more money. The petitioners got more attention from the government officials on their cases, sometimes securing more favorable public opinion.
The suspects, Zhai, Wu, Huang Liqun and Liu Xing have reflected on their alleged crimes and realized their harmful impact, the ministry said.
Zhou and his colleagues at the firm, Liu Sixin, Huang, Wang Yu and Wang Quanzhang, have been detained pending an investigation.
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