Zhou Shifeng, a Chinese human rights lawyer who was heavily sentenced during the 709 crackdown, submitted a criminal indictment to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate Investigation Department of the Chinese Communist Party on June 28, accusing several public prosecutors and judges who led or participated in the “709 crackdown operation” of serious illegal acts, including illegal detention, forced confessions under torture, violent evidence collection, illegal searches, retaliation, framing, and corruption of justice. Zhou Shifeng urged the Supreme Procuratorate to initiate an investigation according to the law to uncover the judicial black curtain behind the 709 case and seek justice for himself and his unjustly implicated colleagues.
Zhou Shifeng’s friend, Mr. Song, told Epoch Times that Zhou Shifeng had sent four sets of indictments to the Supreme Procuratorate and the newly established Prosecutorial Investigation Department, saying, “He sent out four sets of materials last Saturday, each set consisting of 114 pages, totaling 456 pages, targeting former senior officials of the Ministry of Public Security and many high-ranking officials in the Tianjin political and legal system.”
The indictment lists 13 specific officials involved in the case, including former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Public Security, Sun Lijun, who was sentenced to death with a reprieve for corruption, former Secretary of the Tianjin Municipal Committee Political and Legal Affairs Commission, Zhang Liang, and former Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Tianjin Procuratorate, Bian Xuewen. These individuals span the public security, procuratorial, court, and prison systems and were the primary responsible parties for the crackdown on the 709 case series back then.
The indictment states that these individuals not only directly commanded, executed, or shielded illegal activities in the 709 case in 2015 but also continued to frame and persecute during subsequent detention, trial, and imprisonment, seriously violating the current laws including the Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, and Prison Law.
Mr. Song said that the six charges in the indictment include: illegal detention, forced confessions under torture, violent evidence collection, illegal searches and seizures, retaliation, framing, and deprivation of parole and communication rights against Zhou Shifeng.
On July 9 and 10, 2015, Zhou Shifeng was taken away from his residence in Beijing by more than a dozen plainclothes individuals under the pretext of “checking the water meter,” with no legal procedures presented by the police. He was then secretly detained for over two months in “black jails” in Beijing and Tianjin, completely deprived of the right to meet with his lawyers and communication rights.
In the indictment, he recalled that he was subjected to torture during the “residential surveillance at a designated location” period, where he was physically restrained during interrogations, unable to stand or lie flat, and suffered severe psychological distress. The interrogation records made by the police distorted his intentions multiple times, with contexts confused and significantly different from the original recordings.
Another friend of Zhou Shifeng, Mr. Chen, a legal professional, told Epoch Times in an interview that Zhou Shifeng’s accusation was aimed at revealing the truth of the 709 case: “The handling personnel conducted illegal searches of Zhou Shifeng’s office and residence using forged or blank documents, confiscated a large number of items, files, and electronic equipment, but to this day, nine years later, these items have not been returned, nor has there been any official explanation.”
A former lawyer who once represented Zhou Shifeng, Mr. Qin (alias), said that one of the reasons Zhou Shifeng was retaliated against was for publicly reporting corruption during the annual inspection of the Beijing Judicial Bureau and representing the rights of the family members of the Qing’an Railway Station shooting case in Heilongjiang. “He has long been listed as a key target for ‘intensified rectification’ by the authorities, and after being imprisoned, his channels for appeal were completely blocked, and multiple applications for parole were rejected.”
Regarding the accusations of “corruption” and “infringement of communication and parole rights,” Mr. Qin said, “The indictment points out that the expression ‘inciting subversion of state power’ in the judgment is completely groundless, blatantly inconsistent with the original recordings and witness statements. The Tianjin court also tampered with evidence, manipulated the trial process, severely violating the judicial procedural justice.”
He added that Zhou Shifeng had made multiple meritorious acts during his imprisonment, which should have led to a reduction in sentence according to the law, but the prison authorities refused to implement it on the grounds of being a “political prisoner.” Family letters were withheld for a long time, and many requests to meet with lawyers were denied.
On July 9, 2015, the Chinese public security forces launched a large-scale nationwide crackdown on rights-defending lawyers and human rights defenders, known as the “709 case.” Zhou Shifeng was the founder of the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm, and many lawyers and staff of the firm were arrested. He himself was sentenced to seven years on charges of “subverting state power” in 2016. After his release in 2022, he has been trying to appeal through legal channels, review the case, and hold accountable those responsible for the past persecution.
Several Chinese legal scholars in the legal field, who wish to remain anonymous, told Epoch Times that the 709 case is one of the most internationally watched political judicial cases in recent years. Zhou Shifeng’s criminal accusation is a direct test of the slogan of “governing the country according to law.”
Sun Li, a former prosecutor of the Chinese Communist Party currently in exile overseas, said during an interview, “This is a typical attempt at reverse accountability. Zhou Shifeng is using legal means to hold the systemic violence that created wrongful convictions accountable, not just a judicial action but also a historical record.”
It is reported that Zhou Shifeng wrote at the end of the indictment, “The 709 case not only destroyed the life of a lawyer like me but also shattered the last illusion of the public about the rule of law in China. Today, I am not accusing for myself but for all those who have suffered in silence.”
As of now, the Supreme Procuratorate has not responded to whether they have officially accepted Zhou Shifeng’s accusation.