Cambridge University Human Rights Law Society: 'Shanghaied with Peter Humphrey'

In 2013, fraud investigator and former journalist Peter Humphrey was detained in China and charged with "illegally acquiring personal information" of Chinese nationals. The British investigator was hired to investigate an alleged smear campaign against the Anglo-American pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, but soon found himself embroiled in a much larger drama when the Chinese government announced a bribery investigation against GSK China. Peter and his American wife Yingzeng Yu were arrested and detained. Their nightmare in the Chinese prison system would last almost two years: He was paraded on state TV, forced to stand trial, and was sentenced to thirty months in jail on a false conviction.

In June 2015, Chinese authorities finally released him and his wife in response to mounting diplomatic pressure and international media attention around Peter's health. He had developed cancer and proper medical treatment was denied him while in captivity. In his first talk at Cambridge, Peter will recount this ordeal. His narrative provides a starting point for a discussion of human rights in the criminal process in China.