Submission to UN on Chen Guangcheng – March 17, 2006
Comments Off on Submission to UN on Chen Guangcheng – March 17, 2006Updated information on Chen Guangcheng
To: Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers
Special Representative of the Secretary General for Human Rights Defenders
March 17, 2006
Re: Updating information on Chen Guangcheng, submitted to OHCHR on March 10, 2006
At 9:00 p.m. on March 11, 2006, Chen Guangcheng was arrested by police from the Yinan Public Security Bureau, and remains in custody to date. At least two villagers, Chen Guangyu and Chen Guangjun, were taken away at the same time.
Two hours before the arrest, Chen Guangyu, a neighbor of Chen Guangcheng, was severely beaten by four hooded persons with sticks and other weapons when he went out to buy cigarettes. Chen Guangyu was bleeding from his head and neck. The attackers ran back into the group of guards standing guard in front of Chen Guangcheng’s house. Villagers saw several police cars arriving at the village only moments before the incident. Chen Guangcheng had been staying at Chen Guangyu’s house for the last few days. When guards demand that he ask Chen Guangcheng to leave, Chen Guangyu had refused.
After the beating, Chen Guangcheng rushed out of the house to find out what had happened and ask why the guards had failed to prevent the beating, and his wife Yuan Weijing followed to protect him. The approximately 60 guards outside were shoving Chen and trying to provoke a fight, then police in riot gear who had apparently watched the beating of Chen Guangyu without doing anything stepped forward to intervene. Chen Guangcheng, Yuan Weijing, Chen Guangyu, and another villager Chen Guangjun, decided to leave the scene and went to the headquarters of the guards in the village to insist on accountability for the beating, but the officials there refused to respond.
They then decided to go to the seat of Yinan County to report the incident. But more than one hundred police, security guards, and officials arrived and surrounded them on the highway. Chen Guangcheng demanded that they identify the attackers, but they refused. Traffic was blocked. The confrontation lasted for one hour until about 9:00pm, when the Deputy Chief of Yinan County PSB, Liu Jie, gave the order “Arrest them!” Police began pushing through the crowd, throwing Yuan Weijing, who was holding her nine-month-old daughter, and Chen’s 70-year-old mother into the ditch by the road, wrestling down Chen Guangcheng and holding his head to the ground. They also took away Chen Guangyu and Chen Guangjun. No arrest warrant or other document was presented.
At 3:00pm on March 12, Yuan Weijing was given a “Notice on Continuation of Interrogation” stating that her husband’s detention for interrogation would continue until 9:00pm that evening. (According to Art. 11 of the 2004 Ministry of Public Security Regulations “Provisions on Application of Further Interrogation by Public Security Organs,” 12 hours is the maximum period of detention for this purpose, which may be extended to 24 hours in exceptional circumstances.) Since then, however, she has apparently not been given any information about why Chen Guangcheng continues to be held. But all her channels of communications have been severed and she remains under guard at home, so we have had no way to check with her in the last few days if there has been any development in the situation.
The Yinan Public Security Burear put the two Linyi villagers under criminal detention for “suspected disturbance of traffic order.” Families received the notification on March 17. It was dated March 12, signed by the Yinan PSB. The notification said that they were detained at the Yinan County Detention Center. The two villagers, Chen Guangyu and Chen Guangjun, were detained together with Chen Guangcheng on March 11. Still no further information about Chen Guangcheng.
See more UN work on case of Chen Guangcheng:
Update Communique to UN Special Procedures on the case of Chen Guangcheng, September 20, 2006
