On July 12, 2015, attorney Xie Yanyi was secretly detained by the authorities. By the time his family finally received official notice of his arrest on January 11, 2016, Xie had been in custody for over 400 days. The numerous visitation requests filed with the Tianjin Public Security Bureau by the lawyers hired by Xie’s family were all denied; these same lawyers were later dismissed. Instead, Xie’s family was informed that the authorities had arranged a court appointed lawyer for him. In protest, his wife, Yuan Shanshan, filed a suit against this “officially appointed lawyer,” but the court of first instance refused to accept the case. After an appeal, the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate Court will hear the case on October 21, at 3:00 pm. Yuan Shanshan is calling on all of China’s 300,000 lawyers to pay attention to this precedent-setting suit against a court appointed lawyer. 

律师家属起诉“官派律师”第一案

原珊珊（谢燕益妻子）

2016年10月21日天津市第二中级人民法院开庭审理我起诉官方为谢燕益安排的律师北京鑫兴（天津）律师事务所陈文海律师一案，此案缘由是谢燕益律师自2015年7月12日秘密抓捕之后，2016年1月11日家属才收到逮捕通知书，谢燕益涉嫌煽动颠覆国家政权罪，在这400多天家属聘请的律师被天津公安局多次不安排会见最后遭到解聘，2016年8月8号在天津市检察院第二分院得知谢燕益被移送检察院，还有代理律师了，我作为谢燕益的妻子及谢燕益的其他家属完全不知道这是从哪冒出來的律师。嗣后，我本人并代表谢燕益的其他家属起诉这不知从哪冒出来的律师称“官派律师陈文海”，一审法院不予受理，上诉天津市第二中级人民法院，天津二中院于10月21日下午3:00开庭审理。此案是一个先例，对当今法条的理解和执行都有历史记录意义。此案可能不是第一例，但我希望是最后一例，律师就应当履责，按照《宪法》要求维护法律制度，维护社会公平正义，我及家人真诚的邀请全国30万律师在10月21日关注天津市第二中级人民法院，同时盼望律师跟正义与法律为伍，不是做知法犯法、执法犯法的傀儡。

2016.10.17