Henan AIDS Activists Li Xige and Miaojue Cizhi Summoned by Police

May 1, 2008 Comments Off

Henan AIDS Activists Li Xige and Miaojue Cizhi Summoned by Police

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders, May 1, 2008) – In the early hours of May 1, a dozen police barged into the home of Henan AIDS activist Li Xige (李喜阁) and took away Li and fellow AIDS activist Miaojue Cizhi (妙觉慈智) for interrogations. The two have not yet been released.

In the evening of April 30, Miaojue was visiting Li when local police came and demanded to check her residence permit. Several hours later, at 3 a.m., the police returned, produced a summons and took the activists away.

Li is currently held at the Chengguan Township Public Security Bureau (PSB), Ningling County, Henan Province. Miaojue’s whereabouts are currently unknown. Chinese law allows a 12-hour period for police questioning. It has been over twelve hours since Li and Miaojue were taken into custody.

It is believed that the two activists were summoned in relation to their public call for a hunger strike to protest the recent imprisonment of Hu Jia (胡佳), a fellow AIDS activist and human rights defender. In January, Miaojue issued an open letter calling on the country’s leaders to release Hu.

Li is a HIV/AIDS activist from Henan Province who, since August 2006, has been put under house arrest, with periodic cessation, by police from Ningling County. Miaojue is a Buddhist nun devoted to help HIV/AIDS villagers and orphans in Henan Province. She travels constantly, mostly between Guangdong and Henan Provinces, to collect and deliver donated goods for AIDS orphans. Miaojue has been called “China’s Mother Teresa” by Hong Kong press.