UK-based lawyers have spoken out about being targeted by the Chinese state and its supporters in a campaign of intimidation including surveillance, hacking of bank accounts and rape threats.

The barristers, from Doughty Street Chambers in London, say there has been a coordinated and concerted campaign against them since they began acting for the jailed Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and media mogul, Jimmy Lai, three years ago.

Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC said she had received threats via email and social media of dismemberment, rape and death, which have extended to her family in recent months.

“I had a threat to rape one of my children because of my work,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s just an individual or if that’s someone who’s state-linked. What I do know is that if you have a campaign which is led by state authorities to say this lawyer is not to be trusted and they’re undermining the Chinese state by engaging in legal work with the United Nations, it sends a green light to [its supporters] to send material like that.”

As the leader of Lai’s international legal team, Gallagher has been targeted the most, including “hundreds” of attempts to hack her bank account. There has also been so-called “privilege phishing” – attempts to seek to persuade those who are targeted to divulge sensitive information, which the Bar Council has also warned about. Sometimes it is through emails created to appear to have been sent by Gallagher, or her contacts or colleagues.

On one occasion an email purporting to be from her was sent to all of the other KCs in her chambers saying she had decided to resign because her work on the Lai case was putting all of them and their families in danger. “I woke up in a hotel room to a whole load of messages saying: ‘Are you OK? What can I do?’” she said.

The team have also received WhatsApp calls which show up as being from colleagues when they are not.

In March 2023, Gallagher and Jennifer Robinson, who is also on the Lai team, were followed around the UN office in Geneva by a man.. In June 2023, a fellow barrister, Tatyana Eatwell, had a speech at the UN human rights council interrupted by a delegation from China when she mentioned Lai. She said at a separate UN event “they accused us of being criminals … [it was] deeply intimidating”. Such behaviour has been highlighted in the last two annual reprisals reports by the UN secretary general.

Activity obviously emanating from the Chinese state has also included denunciations in government statements and its closely controlled media. Other targeting of the lawyers is not so easily attributable, but Gallagher said: “We think because of the coordination of the emails and the cyber-attacks and the fact that they coincide with key moments in the case, we’ve good reason to believe that they’re state linked.”

They have reported online attacks to specialist Metropolitan police officers, who she said had been helpful but were hamstrung by the sophistication of the overseas perpetrators. Gallagher said there were once 32 simultaneous attempts to hack her email account using virtual private networks (VPNs) to make it look as if the perpetrators were based anywhere from Delaware, in the US, to Kazakhstan and South Africa.

Clerks and researchers – one of whom had their iPhone cloned – have also been targeted.

Jonathan Price, another barrister on the team, said: “We have to be careful about who’s publicly in the team. It’s a conversation we have to have with anyone we use and sometimes the answer is: ‘I’d rather not.’”

The lawyers, who cannot travel to countries that have extradition arrangements with China or Hong Kong, have chosen to speak out now because they believe that transnational repression and the targeting of lawyers is growing. Gallagher gave evidence on the issue to the UK parliament’s joint committee on human rights last week.

“It is very difficult to deal with,” she said. “They are tactics which are designed to frighten us off doing our job or to make us worse at our jobs. And I think that’s why we’re redoubling our efforts. Because if they hate us – the lawyers – this much, think about how much they hate our client.”

When contacted for comment, a spokesperson at China’s UK embassy just condemned Lai.