Human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng is expected to be released on 13 April after completing a three-year sentence following his baseless conviction for “inciting subversion of state power”.

We, the undersigned civil society organizations, are deeply concerned about his wellbeing. We urge Chinese authorities to ensure that Yu Wensheng is immediately released after serving his sentence and is allowed to reunite with his family in Beijing and to freely exercise his human rights.

Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan are prominent advocates for rule of law and human rights in China. As a result, they have faced government harassment for many years; this is the second time since 2018 that Yu has been arbitrarily deprived of his liberty.

As a human rights lawyer, Yu represented victims in many sensitive human rights cases, including representing 709 Crackdown lawyers, and publicly called for constitutional reforms aimed at strengthening checks on state power.…