China Human Rights Briefing June 20-August 13, 2006

August 13, 2006 Comments Off

China Human Rights Briefing

(June 20-Aug. 13, 2006)

August 11: HIV/AIDS activist Li Xige released on bail

Li Xige, an HIV/AIDS activist from rural Henan Province who is the director of the group Healthy Happy Home, was released on bail after 21 days in detention.

On July 18, Li Xige and seven other women travelled to Beijing from their hometown in Ningling County, Henan Province, to call on the Ministry of Health to look into their demands for fair compensation by the local government. These women had had blood transfusions in state-run hospitals in 1993-2001 and had become infected with HIV as a result.

When they arrived in Beijing, they were intercepted by a bus owned by the Ministry of Health. Dozens of police and officials from Ningling County, who were in the bus, took them back to Ningling. They were questioned on their arrival on July 20. Five women were released shortly afterwards. Li Xige and two other women were charged with “gathering people to assault a state organ” after they refused to disclose details of their complaints to the Ministry. The other two women, Ms. Wang and Ms. Zhang, were released on bail for medical reasons on July 27 and August 2. Li Xige’s request for release on bail was initially refused and then granted on August 11. The Beijing-based AIZHIXING, a Chinese NGO, and international groups protested. The UNAIDS agency raised concern about the case.

On August 12, officials “visited” Li Xige at her home. She is still under surveillance and is not allowed to leave town.

Li Xige was infected with HIV/AIDS in 1995 when giving birth by caesarean. The state hospital recommended that she have a blood transfusion. She only discovered that she was infected when her daughter died of AIDS in 2004. Her second daughter was also infected during pregnancy. Li began to appeal for the state hospital to be held accountable. She contacted more than 40 local women and 10 children who had become infected in similar circumstances, and documented their cases. She founded an organization called Kanglejia (Healthy Happy Home) as a support network. The local court repeatedly refused to investigate their allegations and police repeatedly detained them when they tried to petition authorities.

August 11: Environmentalist Tan Kai sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment

Environmental activist, Tan Kai, male, aged 33, was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment for “illegally obtaining state secrets” by Hangzhou Municipal People’s Intermediate Court on August 11. Tan was arrested in October 2005 after leading a protest against water pollution caused by a power plant in April 2005. He and other five people set up a group named Green Watch after the protest. The trial started on May 15, 2005.

His lawyer Li Heping raised concerns about Tan Kai’s health condition in prison. Tan Kai suffers from a liver disease.

Tan Kai helped local villagers who were demanding health and environmental rights in Huashui country, Zhejiang Province, in April 2005. The villagers held large protests against pollution by a power plant and clashed with police. Several villagers were injured. Five months later, Tan Kai and five other activists were arrested. The others have been released.

August 11: Independent Writer Zan Aizhong Detained for Internet Articles Denouncing Religious Persecution

Zan Aizhong, a writer and member of the Independent Chinese Pen Association, was detained for “spreading rumors and disturbing social order” on August 11. He was given a seven-day administrative detention under the Security Administration Punishment Law (zhian guanli chufa fa). He gave interviews and wrote articles about police demolishing a protestant church in Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, on July 29. The incident caused more than 50 injuries, and two Christians were detained.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported the church demolition, but said it went smoothly and the two were detained because they “created trouble.” Zan Aizhong interviewed many Christians and he wrote about his findings. On August 4, he was taken in by police for questioning, his office was searched, and his computer confiscated. Police warned Zan not to leave Hangzhou. Zan sent out a public call on August 9 for the head of Hangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, Wu Pengfei, to discuss with him the urgency of reporting the truth to the public. He also went to the police station to hand in the open letter. On August 11, Zan received the administrative detention order.

Zan Aizhong was a journalist of for China Ocean News (Zhongguo haiyang bao). He was fired by the paper on August 10. The paper announced this decision in its No. 16 (2006) document: “From this date on, comrade Zan Aizhong would no longer hold the position of journalist at the Zhejiang bureau” of the paper.

August 10: Beijing AIZHIXING Protests Ministry of Health’s Failure to Prevent the Spread of HIV

In a letter to the Supreme People’s Procurator on August 10, Wan Yanhai, the

executive director of Beijing Aizhixing Institute raised concern that the PRC

Ministry of Health has failed to prevent the spread of HIV in accordance with the Chinese Regulation of Infectious Diseases.

The letter said that the Ministry had not immediately informed relevant departments and population groups when it knew that certain blood products were contaminated by HIV. The Ministry let hospitals use those products, which led to widespread infection. The Ministry also failed to carry out investigation and stop the blood products being delivered across the country. The letter said the Minister of Health, Gao Qiang, should be held legally accountable for malfeasance.

August 9: Beijing Sancundadi Social Study Institute Director under House Arrest

Niu Yuchang, director of Beijing Sancundadi (three spring broad earth) Social Study Institute was put under house arrest in mid-July. His home is surrounded by police cars and guarded 24 hours a day. Police have given no reason for the house arrest.

Niu, male, 62, was a petitioner from Heilongjiang Province. He investigated and documented abuses of petitioners with grievances about forced evictions from their land since 2000. While in Beijing, he met sociologists at Qinghua University and Beijing University, who helped him set up Beijing Sancundadi Social Study Institute.

Due to his advocacy, in the past he has been repeatedly detained, put under surveillance, or sent to psychiatric hospitals.

August 3: HIV/AIDS activist Hu Jia under House Arrest, his Wife under Surveillance

Since his release after being subjected to an enforced disappearance for 41 days, the HIV/AIDS activist Hu Jia has been under house arrest and heavy surveillance. Since July 17, Hu Jia has not been allowed to go out of his house even for a walk in the housing compound where he lives. His wife Zeng Jinyan has been followed or restricted in her movement. Police told them that this was to prevent them from going to Linyi, Shandong, to protest the detention of Chen Guangcheng.

Zeng Jinyan is able to go out but she is ostentatiously followed by a group of up to ten policemen or security guards. She has appealed to the mayor of Beijing about ending this illegal treatment, but received no reply.

August 2: Jailed Tibetan Writer Asks UN for Help in Letter Smuggled out of Jail

Dolma Gyab, a 29 year old teacher and Tibetan writer, was secretly sentenced to a 10-year jail term for writing a book that was never published. He appealed to the United Nations for help in a letter that was smuggled out of jail from the Chusul prison on the outskirts of Lhasa. Dolma Gyab said he wanted to draw attention to the situation in Tibet and to seek help with his unfair sentence. His arrest in March 2005 and his sentence in Lhasa, where he was teaching history at a city middle school, was not known till now.

He had written a 57-chapter book entitled Restless Himalayas and had also begun writing another book on Tibetan geography, which authorities believed touched on sensitive topics such as the locations of Chinese military camps in Tibet. These unpublished papers were apparently found in his home.

July 26: Authorities Close Down Websites, Including “Century China“

Century China, a website facilitating a public discussion forum on political, social and cultural issues, was closed by the Beijing government on July 25. The website had been running for six years and served as an open forum for academic, lawyers and activists inside and outside China. It promotes freedom of thought and expression.

On the same day another online magazine, San-lian Life Weekly (sanlian shenhuo zhoukan) was also shut down by officials without advance notice.

Chinese intellectuals and activists launched a signature campaign denouncing the closure of Century China and other online public forums, calling for respect for freedom of expression online. CRD issued a statement calling for the government to allow the forums to re-open.

July 26: Supreme People’s Procuratorate Issues New Regulations on Prosecuting Cases of Extorting Confessions by Torture

According to a Xinhua News Agency report (Beijing, July 26, by Chen Fei), on that day the Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced that it was issuing a judicial interpretation entitled Regulations of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Standard Provisions for Filing Cases of Criminal Dereliction of Duties and Rights Violations. The Regulations provide rules on eight circumstances in which cases of extorting confessions by torture should be filed for investigation.

According to the Regulations, the crimes of extorting confessions by torture are defined as “the acts of judicial staff using corporal punishment or varied forms of corporal punishment on criminal suspects and the defendants to extract confessions.” When legal personnel are suspected to have committed acts in the following eight categories against suspects/defendants, a case can be filed for investigation: they have been beaten, tied up, subjected to the illegal use of instruments and other illicit means to extract confessions; they have been subjected to freezing or baking temperatures, deprivation of food, exposure to the sun, and other methods for long periods of time to extract confessions, seriously damaging their health; the methods of extorting confessions caused minor injuries, serious injuries, or death; the torture was serious enough to have led to their to committing suicide or injuring themselves, resulting in serious injury, death or mental disorders; the use of torture has caused misjudgments; the use of extorting confessions by torture more than three times or on more than three persons; connivance, incitement, instigation, of coercion of others to extort confessions by torture, with one of the above-mentioned circumstances; and other cases of extorting confessions by torture that should be criminally prosecuted.

These Regulations clearly continue to promote a narrowly-defined version of the crime of torture, one that is not in accord with the definition contained in the Convention Against Torture, to which China has now been a party for 18 years. For example, they continue to view torture as physical abuse, and do not incorporate the idea of mental torture, which is also prohibited under the Convention.

July 28: Zhao Yan Remains in Jail without a Verdict

After the trial of Zhao Yan on June 16, the court has issued no verdict. His lawyers argued that their client was not guilty of the charges laid. The Chinese researcher for the New York Times was charged with “fraud” and “leaking state secrets.”

The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court was expected to issue a verdict on Zhao Yan within a week of a daylong, closed-door trial on June 16. But on June 26, the court announced a month’s delay without giving a reason, according to Guan Anping and Mo Shaoping, Zhao’s lawyers. However, on July 25, there was still no verdict and the court did not give a further date for the verdict.

July 27: Imprisoned Poet Yu Xinjiao Released after Finishing Term

Yu Xinjiao was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on a trumped-up charge of rape in 1999. He was released from Putian City Prison in Fujian Province on July 6. He now lives with his sister in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, and is recuperating from an illness caught in prison.

He was tortured and ill-treated in prison. He was transferred from prison to prison five times because he was believed to be spreading his ideas among prison guards. He was also not allowed to walk around in prison and was deprived of family visitation rights throughout his term.

Yu called for the establishment of a China Renaissance Party in 1998. He had contacted poets and intellectuals to engage in this endeavour since 1994. Yu became famous after 1989 when he published a book of poetry named The Epitaph, which was critical of the government.

July 27: Beijing Housing Activist Liu Junan Released after Finishing Term

Beijing activist Liu Junan was released from prison on July 26 after serving a two-year prison term. Liu, who is disabled, is facing a life of poverty as his social welfare has been withdrawn.

He became disabled in 2003 when he represented victims of forced eviction in filing appeals with the government. He was beaten by two unidentified persons, and broke his hip bones. He filed a lawsuit in the court after the attackers were identified. The court acquitted the two, citing their confessions and good attitude. In 2004, Liu was detained and charged with “causing a social disturbance.”

June 20 – July 20: Chen Guangcheng’s family, lawyers and supporters continue to face threats and harassment

The authorities prevented the holding of a press conference on June 19 in Beijing calling for international concern about the case of activist Chen Guangcheng. Organizers of the press conference were placed under surveillance or taken in for questioning. Chen Guangcheng’s mother and three-year old son were to appear at the press conference, but they were kidnapped in Beijing by a gang of more than 10 unidentified men, and forcibly taken back to Yinan County on June 20. Parents of Chen Guangcheng’s wife have also been followed and closely monitored since early July. Chen’s eldest brother lost his job because of the pressure the authorities put on his employer.

Lawyers and activists, traveling from Beijing to Shandong, were detained by local police or attacked by unidentified men. On June 21, lawyers Zhang Lihui and Li Jingsong met with Chen Guangcheng in the Yinan County Detention Center. Chen told them that he had been ill-treated and received death threats while in custody. Li Jingsong was later taken in for questioning by police because he had sent an SMS message to the local police to ask if Chen’s mother could see a doctor. Several other lawyers including Cheng Hai were detained by police and his camera smashed by unidentified men in the police station. On June 23, Li Jingsong and Li Subin tried to visit Chen Guangcheng’s wife Yuan Weijing to discuss arranging bail for Chen, but they were beaten up by the “guards” hired by the authorities. On June 27, four activists including Hu Jia arrived at Linyi. As they entered Chen’s village, their car was flipped over by unidentified men. The men also snatched Li Jingsong’s camera in front of four policemen, who turned a blind eye to the violent incident.

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On June 24, Yuan Weijing received an official notification from Yinan Public Security Bureau authorizing the arrest of Chen Guangcheng, dated June 21.

On June 29, a forum in Beijing entitled “A panel discussion concerning the rule of law in China and the development of a healthy atmosphere” was closed down by authorities.

On July 7, lawyer Li Jingsong received official notification from Yinan County Court that the trial of Chen Guangcheng would be held on July 17, but the date was later changed to July 20 after some negotiation.

On July 9, Li Jingsong, Li Subin, Teng Biao and Zhang Lihui decided to travel from Beijing to Linyi to conduct an investigation and collect evidence. Just before they left Teng Biao was dissuaded from taking part by the authorities and his employer, the China University of Political Science and Law, where he holds a teaching post.

On July 10, three lawyers plus three activists went to Linyi to help collect evidence. One of them, Hu Jia met Yuan Weijing on the street, but they were attacked by 30 people led by village committee members. Yuan Weijing was seized by police and taken away in a police car. She was not released until 8 hours later. Police justified their operation with the accusations that Yuan Weijing was involved in “intentional damage of property” and “organizing a crowd to disrupt traffic”.

On the morning of July 11, Li Jingsong met again with Chen Guangcheng in the Yinan County Detention Center for an hour. Chen reported that since September 2005, he had been unlawfully ill-treated or verbally abused by local officials, whom he was able to identify by name. He said that prior to April 2, 2006, he had been illegally detained at the Yinan Victoria Resort. Then between April 2 and June 11, when he was officially subjected to criminal detention and transferred to the Yinan County Detention Center, Chen had been illegally held at the Police Training Centre. From March 12 to 14, Yinan County Police officers had subjected Chen to ill-treatment by depriving him of sleep for three days, and in protest he went on hunger strike and refused water.

On July 19, Chen Guangcheng’s lawyer was notified by telephone that Chen’s case required “further investigation” and the trial would be postponed. To date, Chen Guangcheng remains in detention without trial. There is no further information about when the trial will take place.

July 13: Zheng Enchong taken to police station for questioning for the third time, many Shanghai petitioners detained

During the night of July 12, police from Shanghai North Station came and took away Zheng Enchong and his wife. They also searched his house and confiscated his computer as well as notes he had made in the past month. This is the third time the police summoned him for questioning since his release from prison on June 5. Zheng was preparing materials which he intended to present to the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing in an attempt to seek reassessment of his conviction.

From May on, many

Shanghai campaigners against forced evictions have been detained, including Tian Baocheng, Zhang Cuiping, Wang Shuizhen, Wu Dangying and Du Yangming. They may have been detained to prevent them from petitioning around the sensitive period of June 4, but to date none have been released, and their families have not been informed by the authorities why they are being held or where; neither have they received any official documents regarding the arrests.

There has been no news about Chen Xiaoming, who disappeared on February 15. Authorities have refused to tell his family what has happened to him. Chen Xiaoming is known for using administrative litigation to fight for redress and compensation for those affected by forced evictions. He has successfully represented evictees in several court cases. On February 13, he met a U.S. Consulate staff member visiting Fu Yuxia, a forced eviction victim who had been injured in a related incident. Soon after the encounter Chen Xiaoming was taken away and his home ransacked by the authorities.

On May 23, Mao Hengfeng was taken for questioning by Shanghai Municipal Police and held at a hotel. On May 30 she was officially arrested and transferred to a detention center on the charge of “intentional damage to property.” Her family received official notification about the arrest on June 30, which stated that she was arrested for damaging the property of the hotel where she was being held, but no trial date was indicated in the document. Since her release from Reeducation-Through-Labor (RETL) camp in 2005, Mao Hengfeng has been held numerous times at hotels in Qingniangong.

July 13: Journalist Li Yuanlong imprisoned for two years for criticizing government

Li Yuanlong, a journalist at the Guizhou newspaper Bijie Daily, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment plus two years’ deprivation of political rights by the Bijie Intermediate Court on July 13. Li Yuanlong was arrested by Guizhou Provincial Public Security Bureau in September last year for publishing four political commentaries on an overseas Chinese website under the pen name of “Night Wolf.” The Guizhou Procuratorate accused Li Yuanlong of “inciting subversion of state power.” The trial was postponed three times in April, the first hearing eventually took place on May 11. After the sentence was read out by the judge, Li Yuanlong refused to sign the verdict document, and said he would appeal.

June 27 – July 11: Chinese government steps up suppression of churches

Jilin:

On July 11, Wang Jinhua, a prominent family church leader in Northeast China, together with her husband Xu Jinfu and their eight-year old son Xu Enze, were arrested by State Security officers from Fengman District, Jilin. They were charged with “suspicion of illegal cult activities” and were held at the State Security Section of the Public Security Bureau in Fengman. Xu Enze was released in the same afternoon. On July 14 Xu Jinfu was also released. Wang Jinhua was transferred to Baishan Prison, Baishan Town, Jilin City. A wanted notice was issued for Yu Peng, another leader of the same family church, and Yu was thus forced to flee. At least four other church members were summoned by Jilin PSB and questioned about pastor Wang Jinhua’s relationship with the “Three Shifts Servants” (san ban pu ren) a Christian sect. The PSB officers asked them to stop gatherings at the house church, and to attend the local, state approved “Three-Self” church.

Henan:

On the morning of July 9, 20 PSB officers raided a house church, taking away 15 house church members and expelling the rest from the premises. They confiscated the church’s properties and broke the door. Four members were released that afternoon but 11 are still being detained.

On June 29, a family church leader, Pastor Zhang Rongliang, was convicted of “obtaining a travel document by deception” and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison by the Zhongmou County People’s Court, Zhengzhou City, Henan. Because the government had refused to issue Zhang Rongliang a passport, he applied for a passport using an alias. Between 2000 and 2004, Zhang used the passport on several overseas trips facilitated by international religious organizations. He was arrested on December 1, 2004. Because of serious diabetes, Zhang Rongliang was admitted to the Xinmi City People’s Hospital between December 19, 2005, and January 23, 2006, for emergency treatment. According to an eye-witness account, during his hospital stay he was shackled to his bed by cuffs on his ankles and wrists.

The 55-year old Pastor Zhang Rongliang is the leader of the Fangcheng Mother Church and the China for Christ Church, which is one of the largest house church networks, estimated to have over 10 million members. Pastor Zhang, who was baptized in secret in 1969, has already been arrested five times and spent 12 years in prison for leading house churches and for refusing to join state-sanctioned churches. He experienced extremely harsh torture during imprisonment, including electric shocks and having his fingers pinned down by sticks. The most recent imprisonment was in August 1999, when church leaders including Zhang co-authored the 1999 “House Churches of China’s Faith Declaration.” The Declaration protested against religious persecution in China, objected to the authorities labeling the group a cult and called for religious freedom.

Sichuan:

From 11:00am on June 27 to 9:00am on June 28, over 30 family church leaders and members were seized by PSB officers and were savagely beaten in Langzhong City. As of June 28, 14 leaders were still being detained by the PSB, while other members were released and fined 500 yuan each. On July 6, PSB officers broke into a house church in Langzhong city in Sichuan and arrested a couple.

July: China tightens control of Internet

On July 4, the authorities blocked the website “Dijin-Democracy” (Moving Towards Democracy), a pro-democracy discussion forum and information exchange. On the same day, two popular portal sites “KDNet” and “Tianya Virtual Community” were revamped, moving the most popular bulletin boards to obscure corners, and restricting the number of threads and reply postings on the bulletin boards.

On July 5, Chongqing city PSB published “A notice on strengthening the management of internet registration,” requiring that all internet service providers and individuals register their details with the PSB before October 30. All individual internet users including dial-up and dedicated line users are also required to complete the PSB designed registration form. Those who have not registered by the deadline will receive a warning, or a 3000 yuan fine. The authorities can also seal their computers and prevent them from accessing the internet for up to 6 months.

At midday on July 16, the Central Propaganda Department closed down the website “Viewpoint” (previously named “Democracy and Freedom”) for the 48^th time.

Since July, access to many Chinese websites has been disrupted, including “Chinese Rights Defenders Network”, “Independent Chinese PEN Center”, “Tian Wang”, “Gong Min Wei Quan” (The Civil Rights Defense Network).

June 28 – 30: Displaced Zigong peasants defends their land rights

From June 28 to June 30, Zigong authorities deployed over 100 PSB officers daily to suppress peaceful protests asserting land rights. Many farmers were injured, and eight displaced peasants were seized by police. Two were released that night while six others were detained for five, seven or 10 days. Out of the six peasants detained, four sustained visible injuries as a result of severe beatings in custody. In addition to beatings, police intimidated the detainees, including threatening to infect them with HIV by injecting them with the virus.

June 29: Peasants defend land rights in Quanzhou County, Guangxi

On June 29, local authorities sent close to 100 law enforcement personnel in dozens of police cars to Caijia Village, Quanzhou Township, Quanzhou County in the Guanxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Police surrounded the village while a large area of village farmland was bulldozed for construction. Disgruntled villagers refused to sign the land requisition agreement, and refused to collect the compensation. Previously, they have appealed against the requisition through the local court, and have petitioned the Land Resource Department of Guilin City and Guangxi Provincial Government in an attempt to halt the expropriation. In October 2005, all 68 households signed a letter asking the Guangxi Provincial Government to put a stop to the land appropriation by Quanzhou local authorities, but all to no avail. In the end, villagers decided to block the village roads to prevent the demolition crew from entering the site, but they were all forcibly removed by the local authorities; police then surrounded the demolition site to prevent villagers from reentering. Villagers are determined to fight the local government’s actions with lawsuits and appeals to the central government.

June 28: A thousand police officers suppress chemical plant protest in Xialei Village, many beaten and detained

For years, manganese mining companies and processing plants have dumped unprocessed liquid waste directly into the river in Xialei Village, Xialei Township, Daxin County in Guangxi. Severe pollution of the river made the water undrinkable, and caused multiple diseases amongst the villagers. Villagers have petitioned the local authorities numerous times but their voices have been ignored. On June 27, CITIC Group began constructing a new chemical plant to produce electrolytic manganese dioxide, but the construction work was disrupted by villagers peacefully demonstrating at the construction site. In the early hours of the next day, police quietly sneaked into the village and seized two village representatives. The kidnapping led to hundreds of villagers demonstrating outside the Xialei Township Government Building on the same day, demanding the release of the two village representatives. Local government then deployed close to a thousand police officers to suppress the peaceful demonstration, capturing eight villagers and injuring a dozen. As of July 15, at least four villagers were still detained on criminal charges.

Further information：http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2006/07/15/wuran/

June 26: Local authorities in Putian, Fujian continue to persecute land rights activists

On the morning of June 26, 2006, police arrested Lin Fansheng, a villager in Xialou Natural Village, Xibeicun, Tianwei Township, Western Licheng District, Putian City in Fujian. The next day PSB delivered a criminal detention notification, which stated that Lin was charged with “intentional destruction of public and private property.” Lin Fansheng is an executive director of the Xialou Natural Village Seniors Association. In 2004, Licheng District government falsely classified all 114 mu of prime farmland in Xialou Village as non-prime farmland, and then appropriated the land without any formal announcement of requisition compensation or any prior negotiation with the affected villagers. Land developers built walls around the cheaply acquired land, but several of them were knocked down by some villagers. As the executive director of the Seniors Association, Lin Fansheng did not directly take part in the destruction of walls; villagers believe police seized him simply because he is a respected member of the local community.

June 26: Xi’an tricycle operators petition government for right to operate

On the morning of June 26, thousands of tricycle operators in Xi’an demonstrated outside the Xi’an Municipal government to protest against new regulations aiming to eliminate tricycle transportation. A large number of police were on the ground to maintain crowd control; riot police and numerous police vehicles fitted with loudspeakers were also on standby. The demonstrators blocked the road outside the municipal government building, but did not clash with the police. Apparently, over 100,000 people operate tricycles for transportation in Xi’an City alone. Government refused to pay any compensation after banning their operation. Local authorities have consistently refused to issue tricycle licenses, so transport police often fine the operators and confiscate their vehicles. Operators frequently endure verbal and physical abuse by police, and they usually do not get receipts for fines.

June 20: Democracy activist completes prison term but still not released

Zhu Yufu, one of the founders of the “China Democratic Party” in Zhejiang, completed seven years of imprisonment for “subversion of state power” on June 19. However, he has not yet been released and the authorities continue to hold him in the Zhejiang No. 6 Prison. His family inquired at the court but was told that his prison term will only end on September 15. The date supplied by the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court is the date of Zhu Yufu’s official arrest. However, according to Chinese law, the period from detention to official arrest should also be included in the calculation of time in prison, therefore the prison term should have begun on June 19, 1999. Twenty-one Zhejiang activists sent a joint petition to the Hangzhou Procuratorate and Hangzhou Court to express concern about the situation.

Further information: http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2006/06/26/zhu/

(Unless otherwise attributed, all the information in this Briefing is collected and verified by CRD)

Managing Editor: Zhong Yan