Chinese lawyer says she was pepper-sprayed by court officials when trying to observe case

Members of China’s legal community are shocked after lawyers were pepper-sprayed by court bailiffs as they tried to sit in on a landmark case involving local authorities suing a private company outside the area they govern.

Guo Rui, a lawyer with Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, said in a WeChat post on Thursday that she and several other lawyers were blocked by bailiffs on Wednesday as they tried to attend the third hearing of a case in which a private Beijing company was being prosecuted at a court in the northern autonomous region of Inner Mongolia.

Lawyers were required to hand in their electronic devices before entering the courtroom at Xilinhot People’s Court even though there had been no such requirement at the previous two hearings, Guo’s article said.

The lawyers were then pepper-sprayed after they clashed with bailiffs when they asked to see the legal basis for not allowing electronic devices, according to Guo, who previously worked as a journalist at the South China Morning Post.

Guo, who received the worst injuries, called police and was taken to hospital by other lawyers.

The hospital said Guo had “conjunctival haemorrhage in both eyes and burns in the periocular area of both eyes”, and another lawyer received a corneal injury, the article said.

The government of Xilingol League in Inner Mongolia, where the incident took place, has yet to respond to the case. Guo said the local court had not contacted the injured lawyers.

“I will demand that the bailiffs who caused us intentional harm, as well as their superiors, apologise, pay damages and get punished. We will also apply for state compensation,” Guo said.