Husseyin Celil’s lawyer urges students to keep pressuring China

A group of local high school students, trying to help a Burlington man who’s been stuck in a Chinese prison for more than five years, spoke to his lawyer Tuesday about the case.

The students from St Thomas Moore Catholic school have written hundreds of letters to the Chinese consulate and prime minister Harper, appealing for Hussyein Celil’s release. Celil is accused of being a human rights activist for his minority group in China.

Chris MacLeod, Celil’s lawyer says the students’ letter-writing campaign keeps the pressure on Chinese officials. “It’s proven to work, it continues to work and it applies pressure and lets everyone know from the guard to the warden to the head of state that’s allowed a violation of a human right to occur. Lets them all know that the world is watching that theres a spot light on the file of the person of this case and it’s not going away.” Last month the students held a vigil outside the consulate hoping to speak to someone about the case. They got no response.,/p>