Pro-democracy demonstrators hold up portraits of Chinese disbarred lawyer Jiang Tianyong, demanding his release, during a demonstration outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, China December 23, 2016. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese state media said on Thursday that a prominent Chinese rights activist had made up "fake news" of torture to grab international headlines, but his defenders said the accusations were a coordinated attempt to smear his name.
State media said disbarred lawyer Jiang Tianyong, 46, was behind news reports of police torturing another detained rights activist, Xie Yang, and that Jiang had later admitted to telling Xie's wife to make up details of torture in captivity to attract attention to the case.
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