Shenzhen court apologizes over yellow health code case dismissal

A court in Shenzhen City in south China's Guangdong Province has suspended a judge and apologized to a lawyer for dismissing her case because she had a yellow health code.

The Guangming District People's Court in the city said in a statement on Sunday the quashing of the case was improper and the situation has since been corrected.

The lawyer, surnamed Song, works in an office building in Huangpu District in the provincial capital city of Guangzhou. The building was put under temporary COVID-19 lockdown from July 10. She got the yellow health code despite returning two negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test results.

With a case to be heard in the Shenzhen court in the next two days, Song said she repeatedly called the court to apply for an online hearing but did not get any response.

On July 12, she drove all the way to the Shenzhen court from Guangzhou – a distance of about 150 kilometers – yet was barred from entering because of the yellow code. Her application for an online hearing was also denied and the court dismissed the case on grounds that the lawyer was absent.