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Update 6: Meet the 5 Prisoners That We Are Asking To Be Released

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MEET THE FIVE WE WANT RELEASED:

When sending out your letters, we want you to write to the following people: “The Peoples Republic of China, The United Nation’s High Commissioner on Human Rights, The World Trade Organization, and The International Olympic Committee and you local government” Now is the time to cease this moment and let your voice be heard. Please review your letters and make sure these names are included in each one before you send them out

Here are the 5 prisoners:

RELEASE Pastor Zhang Rongliang
RELEASE Xu Na, Falun Gong
RELEASE Hu Jia, Buddhist / Activist
RELEASE Shi Tao, Journalist
RELEASE Guo Feixiong, self-trained “barefoot” lawyer.

1. RELEASE Pastor Zhang Rongliang

Prominent Chinese church leader arrested

Co-author of bold manifesto delivered to communist regime

Posted: December 11, 2004

1:00 am Eastern

Amid an intense crackdown on China’s house churches, authorities arrested one of the country’s top Christian leaders, the author of a bold manifesto delivered to the communist regime.

Zhang Rongliang, 53, was taken into custody Dec. 1 at his apartment in Xuzhai village, Zhengzhou city, Henan province, the Oklahoma-based Voice of the Martyrs reported

Zhang leads the Fangcheng Mother Church in Henan and the China for Christ Church, one of the largest house church networks in the country with an estimated 10 million members.

Co-author of the House Churches of China’s Confession of Faith and Declaration in 1999, he is well-known internationally and has been featured in books such as “Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power,” by former Time magazine journalist David Aikman, and in articles in magazines such as Newsweek.

Zhang already has spent 12 years in prison during five separate detentions since his secret baptism in 1969, VOM said. He experienced harsh torture, including electric shocks, during his prison terms.

VOM sources said a witness saw a Ministry of State Security vehicle parked near Zhang’s apartment before the 1 p.m. arrest last week. His wife and children were not home at the time and now are in hiding.

On the evening of the arrest, police surrounded Xuzhai village and searched every house, according to VOM sources, who believe Zhang’s wife and children were the targets of the search.

Authorities confiscated Zhang’s Christian DVDs, materials and photos revealing relationships with foreigners and foreign agencies.

At least three house churches in the Fangcheng area were raided last week after Zhang’s arrest, including the house of the parents of Xiao Min, who is sought by authorities because of her prolific writing of Chinese worship songs known as “Canaan Hymns.”

Zhang’s arrest comes amid a serious crackdown on China’s house churches, said VOM, which notes a “generally worsening situation and increased arrests.”

All Protestant and Catholic churches in China are required to be under control of the government, and groups that do not register – the vast majority – are included in the list of “illegal cults.”

The government is engaged in a disinformation campaign, similar to one used against the Falun Gong before the major crackdown against the sect, according to VOM.

Articles on an overseas pro-China website called DUOWEI news and in the New York Times portrayed house churches as secret religious fanatics who even commit murder in a battle for new membership.

VOM believes the Chinese government purposely provided misleading and false information to the news outlets by linking the house church with “a criminal group disguised as religion called Eastern Lightning.”

In September, more than 100 pastors were arrested in Kaifeng city alone, and at least 11 have been sentenced to one to three years of “re-education through labor.”

The pastors sentenced are Zhang Wanshun, Ping Xinsheng, Guo Zhumei ,Yang Jianshe, Zhang Weifang, Zhang Tianyun, Yu Xiangzhi, Yu Guoying, Shun Fu, Chen Yanjing and Li Qun.

Ranging in age from 25 to 57, each was accused as “leaders of an evil cult” and already has experienced harsh treatment, including severe beatings.

Ping lost consciousness three times due to continuous beatings since his arrest in August, VOM said.

VOM sources fear Zhang, who has suffered from diabetes for five years, could face harsh treatment by police.

“As the leader of a large house-church network, he could be classified as an evil cult leader,” the group said.

Police also are seeking Zhang’s two sons and could pressure him to give information about them and the activities of other church leaders.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41875

Prominent House Church Leader Zhang Rongliang

Sentenced to Over Seven Years in Prison; Family Members Concerned for his Health

CAA Released Prosecution Paper

Photo: The arrest warrant paper issued by PSB of Xinmi City, Henan province

MIDLAND, Texas, July 8 /Christian Newswire/ — China Aid confirms that one of the most prominent Chinese House Movement leaders pastor Zhang Rongliang was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on July 4, 2006. The verdict paper was issued on June 29 by Zhongmu county People’s Court though neither Zhang’s wife nor other members of his immediate family has received it. Zhang was arrested on December 1, 2004. According to CAA source, 55-year-old pastor Zhang was arrested at Xuzhai village, Zhengzhou city, Henan province in a rented apartment. The apartment was searched and all Pastor Zhang’s Christian DVDs, materials and photos revealing relationships with foreigners and foreign agencies were confiscated.

Zhang’s wife and their two sons have been deeply concerned for his welfare and safety, especially as he suffers from serious diabetes for seven years. His disease was so serious that he was admitted to the Xinmi city People’s Hospital from his detention center from December 19, 2005 until January 23, 2006 for emergent treatment. He was seen handcuffed and chained to his hospital bed.

Zhang was charged with “attaining a passport through cheating” and with “illegal border crossing” for his international traveling including to the US, Australia, Egypt and Singapore for world mission conferences.(read the whole text of prosecution paper).One witness reported seeing Zhang.

Pastor Zhang is the leader of the Fangcheng Mother Church, Henan and the leader of the China for Christ Church, which is one of the largest house church networks estimated to have more than 10 million members. He has been well known by the international community as one of the house church patriarchs. He is a co-author of the published House Churches of China’s Confession of Faith and Declaration in 1999. He has been featured in a number of international articles and books, including ‘Jesus in Beijing’ (2003) by former TIME journalist, David Aikman, Newsweek (12th May 2004), TIME magazine, Charisma and Christianity Today. Last year, European Parliament passed a resolution demanding pastor Zhang’s release.

Pastor Zhang has been wanted for many years since his last imprisonment in August 1999. He has already spent twelve years in prison for his faith since his secret baptism in 1969 during five separate detentions. He experienced extreme harsh torture including electric shocks during his prison terms.

“We are deeply disappointed for this extraordinary harsh verdict given the fact that the Chinese authorities often deny passports and other travel documents to well-known religious leaders like pastor Zhang.” Said Bob Fu who is the president of China Aid and personally knows pastor Zhang and his family, “This is yet another case showing the Chinese government’s new tactic of religious persecution in the name of criminal charges.”

http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/82672492.html

2. RELEASE Xu Na, Falun Gong

Urgent Appeal: Celebrity Musician’s Widow Faces Prison for Practicing Falun Gong

After husband died of torture, wife is at risk of long-term imprisonment

17 Jun 2008

Xu Na, pictured here, is at risk of long-term imprisonment because she practices Falun Gong.

NEW YORK – The widow of a well-known musician and Falun Gong adherent who died from abuse in police custody has been arrested and is at serious risk of being sentenced to a long prison term.

Yu Zhou, a popular folk band member, and his wife, Xu Na, were detained in Beijing on January 26. According to reports received by the Falun Dafa Information Center (FDIC) from their family and friends, police stopped the couple’s car as they were coming home from a performance by Yu’s band, Xiaojuan and Residents from the Valley.

The couple was detained and taken to Tongzhou District Detention Center because they practice Falun Gong.

Eleven days later, Yu’s family was told to go to the Qinghe Emergency Center. When his family arrived, they found him dead. (news) Soon after, Yu’s death was mourned in the Chinese blogosphere and reported on by The (London) Times.(news)

His wife Xu Na, herself an award-winning artist, has remained in detention since the couple’s arrest. In April, her family was notified that she was to be charged with “using a heretical organization to undermine implementation of the law,” a vague provision of the penal code commonly used to sentence Falun Gong adherents to prison terms of up to 12 years. (Amnesty report)

In early May, Xu was transferred to the Chongwen District Detention Center, where she awaits trial at the Chongwen District Court.

Xu Na and her husband Yu Zhou in happier times. Yu was killed in police custody in February and Xu is currently at risk of being unjustly imprisoned for years.

“Xu is a prisoner of conscience, detained only because of her identity as a believer of a peaceful spiritual practice and is now facing jail because the authorities fear her speaking out over her husband’s death,” said FDIC Spokesperson Erping Zhang.

“Rather than investigating Yu’s untimely death at the hands of the police, the Chinese court system is preparing to send an innocent woman to prison again. Her case is symptomatic of the lack of rule of law in China and of the broader crackdown on Falun Gong ahead of the Olympic Games.”

Xu was released in 2006 after serving a five year sentence for having lent her apartment to Falun Gong adherents traveling to Beijing to appeal to the authorities for an end to the persecution campaign. While in detention, she was reportedly subjected to torture, including beatings, sleep deprivation, forced-feeding, and being tied into uncomfortable positions for hours.

Sources familiar with Xu’s case believe that her trial is still being delayed because of the international attention to her husband’s death.

“Xu Na is in serious danger of being sentenced for a long time,” says Li Jie, who shared a prison cell with Xu in 2001. Speaking from Los Angeles, Li explained that a second imprisonment for Falun Gong practitioners is typically harsh. “Since Xu was sentenced to five years the first time, the second time might be more than ten years.”

“Life in jail is horrible, especially for Falun Gong practitioners, because they will use any method to force you to give up your beliefs. It’s awful for such a young and talented lady.”

http://www.faluninfo.net/article/675/

Musician Yu Zhou’s Remarkable Wife Xu Na

Xu Na is a 40 year old well-known and respected painter. She is now illegally detained in the Beijing Detention Center because of her belief in Falun Gong. Her husband Yu Zhou, a famous folk singer and also a practitioner, died from torture just before Chinese New Year. Although Xu remains in jail, she is attempting to overcome all difficulties to appeal for her husband’s innocence.

May 7, 2008

By Tu Long, Meng Yuan/Secret China

With the Beijing Olympics around the corner, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has intensified the persecution of domestic dissident and Falun Gong practitioners. Xu and her husband are merely one of numerous families enduring persecution.

A Scholarly Family

Xu was born in Northeast China’s Changchun City in Jilin Province. All her family members are artists. Xu’s father is a painter of the Chinese Cultural Federation, and her mother is a teacher at the Jinlin College of Arts.

Xu graduated from the Department of Literary and Arts at the Communication University of China (formerly the Beijing Broadcasting University). She chose to be an artist because of her family’s nurturing. Her works attained fame very quickly.

In 1997, Xu’s award winning work was displayed in the Ministry of Culture’s grand exhibition of Chinese art. In 1998, she won an award at the China Youth Oil Painting Exhibition.

Xu’s paintings are well known in China and Hong Kong, an oil painting of hers could be sold for tens of thousands yuan (Chinese currency). Fine arts experts said that the calligraphy of her painting was very skillful, although the colors were very plain and simple. From the elegant and quiet wild flower, the green wilderness, and the desk under the tranquil light, one can feel the wonder and peace in the painter’s heart.

The painting reveals the painter’s personality. Xu had practiced Falun Gong for two to three years at the time, the auspiciousness and tranquility in the painting manifested her simple and serene mood from cultivation.

Xu’s husband Yu Zhou is a fellow Northeasterner, and also a Falun Gong practitioner. Yu is a solid man with 180 cm height, which makes his wife Xu, a 162 cm tall lady, extra petite. Yu is also very artistic, He graduated with a degree in French language from Beijing University and could speak a variety of languages. He was familiar with traditional Chinese arts, and very knowledgeable in poems and poetic song. He was also famous among the young artists at the time. Later on Yu became the drummer of the famous folk music team “Xiaojuan & Co-Residents in the Valley.”

The harmonious life made Yu and Xu a felicitous couple.

The Challenges of a Righteous Path

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the suppression of Falun Gong in 1999. Under the effects of long term brainwashing, many Chinese developed the notion that they should “do whatever the party asks me to do.” As a result, despite having benefited from the practice, some people gave up practicing Falun Gong.

Despite these circumstances, Xu and her husband Yu persisted in the cultivation like many other Falun Gong adherents. They devoted themselves to revealing the facts of the CCP’s persecution to other Chinese people.

At the beginning of the persecution, many Falun Gong practitioners lived on tight budgets to save money to travel to Beijing and appeal for Falun Gong. Despite Yu and Xu’s, difficulties making ends meet in Beijing, they often provided food and shelter for their fellow practitioners coming from other places. In 2001, Xu was sentenced to five years in prison for sheltering fellow practitioners.

The prison situation is very brutal in China, especially for Falun Gong practitioners. In order to brainwash Falun Gong adherents, the prison would often deprive practitioners’ right to sleep, only allowing them four hours of sleep while making them doing heavy physical work during the day. To make matters even worse for Xu, on the first day, Xu was assigned to do work that often required one year’s training—to make 600 pairs of shoe parts daily.

In November 2002, Xu was transferred to a special prison section for forced brainwashing. In order to brainwash her, the prison used many torture methods, complete sleep deprivation, tied and forced to sit in a cross-legged position for a long hours, physical punishment, forced into using her finger print on self incriminating statements that were written by others; forced to stay outside during cold weather wearing little clothing, not allowed to shower for more than a month, etc.

Xu is nice to everyone, even to the police and prisoners who were sent to persecute or monitor her. Between the tiring and busy work hours, she drew portraits for the criminals assigned to monitor her, told them the wonders of Falun Dafa and her own experiences of practicing Falun Gong. Gradually, many police and prisoners were moved by Xu’s kindness, they all tried to help her and other Falun Gong practitioners privately, some even became practitioners themselves.

Xu came to know many people in prison because she was often transferred to different sections in the Beijing Female Prison. The head of the prison police was very surprised and bothered to find that Xu had the ability to change others’ hearts, to make all those who had been around her into better people. To him, the prison is the party’s “violent institute.” If the prison police and prisoners became friendly; there would be no “violence.” Therefore, he transferred Xu between teams frequently, but wherever she went, the convicts would wave goodbye to her in tears.

Steadfast

At the end of 2002, being unable to brainwash Xu Na, and seeing many people influenced by her instead, the warden of the prison decided to lock her in solitary confinement so as to reduce her contact with others. There, Xu witnessed a most horrific and tragic scene:

All of the “solitary confinement cells” housed faithful Falun Gong practitioners.

Dong Cuifang, one of Xu’s fellow practitioners, was imprisoned next to her. Dong was a 29 year old former doctor from the Women’s and Children’s Health Care Hospital in Shunyi District in Beijing. She was transferred to the Third Section of the Beijing Women’s Prison on the morning of March 11, 2003. One day, Xu heard Dong groaning and being beaten in the neighboring cell. She rushed into Dong’s cell when the criminal inmate who monitored her wasn’t paying attention. She shouted to the thug: “Stop it”! However, the criminal inmate monitoring her immediately came up and forcibly pulled her back.

On March 18, the head of the Division of the Prison, Tian Fengqing asked police officer Xi Xuehui, to torture Dong. Xi and another police officer Dong Xiaoqing led five other prisoners who used to be practitioners but were brainwashed and gave up their belief, to torture Dong Cuifang. They brought Dong to a bathroom next to the boiler house downstairs. Afterwards, the tragedy happened. Xu witnessed through the window that Dong’s body was carried away several hours later.

The prison feared that Dong’s death would be exposed, so the team leader and several thugs, including the killers Li Xiaobing and Li Xiaomei, were in a panic to prepare fake evidence. However, they could not disguise the scars and bruises on Dong’s body. After the incident, the prison suddenly increased the security level to guard Falun Gong practitioners. Other practitioners also sensed serious things had happened.

One day, when Xu ate lunch with the other prisoners, she saw that everyone was there, so she shouted to the killer Li Xiaomei, “You are a murderer! You killed Dong Cuifang!” Everyone was shocked. And Li was so scared that she turned over the table and pulled Xu in to see the prison police. Li’s desperate response proved that Xu’s words were true.

She wrote to the warden of the prison to appeal for Dong’s death. In her letter, she talked about Dong’s death and the principle of retribution, in the hope that the warden would stop the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners within his charge.

The letter severely scared the warden. He was afraid of people knowing what he had done. He immediately isolated Xu and transferred her to solitary confinement again. To protect her rights, Xu began a hunger strike. Afraid of one more death, the prison put her on forced feeding for a long period of time. In prison, forced feeding is not merely a medical procedure to prevent people from starving to death, but another kind of cruel torture. Several months later, Xu was sent back to the prison, but was guarded more strictly.

No long before her release, Xu told the police in public that she would appeal. She would sue the prison section head Tian for instigating criminals to torture her and other Falun Gong practitioners, and even beating Dong Cuifang to death. Her courage deterred the wicked people in the prison. The prisoners all showed their respect to Xu.

In 2006, Xu went home after five years of illegal imprisonment. However, the police often harassed the couple and monitored their daily lives. Xu warned the police many times of their illegal conduct.

The reunion of Xu and Yu gave a boost to both of their careers. In 2007, Yu’s band “Xiaojuan & Co-Residents in the Valley” signed a contract with the famous music program Channel V. His band was listed in the “must listen folk group” in 2007 and their style was named the warmest voice of the year. Xu also became a graduate student at the Oil Painting Department of the Central Institute of Fine Arts. Her work was chosen to be displayed at the First Top 100 Young Chinese Oil Painting Exhibition in Shanghai.

Intensified Persecution

The CCP used the 2008 Beijing Olympics as an excuse to intensify its persecution of dissidents and religious beliefs. At 10 p.m. on January 26, 2008, while Yu and Xu were driving home from Yu’s recording studio, police stopped their car to perform an “Olympic safety” inspection. The police found Falun Gong lectures in their car and took them to the Tongzhou District Detention Center.

At 9 a.m. on January 27, 2008, officers from the Beiyuan Police Station, Tongzhou Police Station, Xiangshan Police Station, and Haidian Police Station, searched Xu Na’s parents’ home. They found nothing and continued the search Xu Na’s younger sister’s home.

On February 6, 2008, the last day of the year according to the Chinese calendar, when all families have their reunions and have dinner together, Yu died in the Qinghe Emergency Center at the age of 42. He didn’t get a chance to see Xu before he died. The detention center did not even allow Xu to attend her husband’s funeral.

Xu has been transferred to the Beijing Detention Center, (also known as the Seventh Section of the City Bureau, a place reserved for political prisoners) Yu Zhou at the microphone.

Losing Her Loved One

Through her lawyer, hired by her parents, Xu learned of the death of her husband. Xu has filed a case requesting an investigation of Yu’s death. She also demanded the right to take care of his personal matters after his death.

The world looks at China in scrutiny as the 2008 Beijing Olympics approaches. Falun Gong practitioner Yu Zhou’s death is finally receiving the world’s attention after the CCP’s nine years of brutal persecution. After Yu’s death was exposed on overseas Chinese media, London based The Times has also reported on this case, and many other media reprinted the story. Pressured by international opinion, the Beijing Court postponed Xu’s trial.

*Secret China is an uncensored Chinese news website reporting on issues within China.

http://www.fofg.org/news/news_story.php?doc_id=1489

3. RELEASE Hu Jia, Buddhist / Activist

Hu Jia: China’s enemy within

Even under house arrest, Hu Jia continued his fearless campaign against Beijing’s abuse of human rights. Yesterday he was finally jailed – but he is likely to become the poster-boy for critics of the Olympics. By Clifford Coonan

Friday, 4 April 2008

As far as Hu Jia was concerned, the door to his apartment was always open to fellow Chinese who shared his desire for greater freedom, foreign friends, or activists with issues to discuss.

But it was always a question of when, not if, the Communist Party would lock up Mr Hu, China’s most famous dissident, who has been under house arrest for many months, guarded by state security officers.

Yesterday Mr Hu, 34, was transformed into one of the world’s most famous human rights defenders as China moved to stifle dissent before the Olympic Games in Beijing. He was jailed by a Beijing court for three and a half years for “inciting to subvert state power” through a series of articles about freedom and for his constant dialogue with foreign journalists.

Mr Hu would not have been surprised by the jail sentence. One of the last things he said to me defiantly after I interviewed him while he was under house arrest last year was: “I’m ready that the next step after house arrest will be jail.”

Getting in to see Mr Hu in his apartment complex, which is called Bobo Freedom City, involved flashing your press pass at the police who ran alongside your car as you entered the compound. Then you had to pick your way around groups of police officers playing cards in the stairwell and standing around outside the apartment block, smoking and chatting idly, or hassling Mr Hu’s wife, Zeng Jinyan, as she left for work.

Despite the constant surveillance, Mr Hu kept a blog on an overseas website called Boxun. The prosecutors had 4kg of documents in evidence against him – this was never going to end well for him.

Mr Hu seems fearless. He has spoken out on Aids, Tibetan autonomy and free speech, while embracing the causes of the activist lawyer Gao Zhisheng, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind rural campaigner who has been jailed for four years.

He sometimes gives an impression of naivety. How can he survive? Long a thorn in the side of the Beijing government, the authorities say his case exemplifies how Western media are obsessed with human rights and other negative aspects of China’s rise, while not paying enough attention to the progress made.

While the sentence is lighter than many in the human rights community feared, Mr Hu’s conviction for criticising the Communist Party is likely to become a cause célèbre among rights activists, alongside the issue of Tibet, ahead of the Olympic Games. By formally jailing him, the authorities may have created a monster, a poster boy for the critics of the Communist Party’s strict controls on dissent and protest.

Mr Hu, an amiable, slight figure, who suffers from hepatitis B, was carted off by state security police in late December after he had already spent more than 200 days under house arrest. He and his wife and their six-week-old daughter, Hu Qianci, were at home around Christmas time with Ms Zeng’s grandmother when 20 policemen burst in, cut their telephone lines and internet connection and arrested Mr Hu. Ms Zeng and the baby remain under house arrest, and she left the courtroom yesterday visibly upset, before being taken home in a police van.

Speaking on the telephone recently, she told of how she was only allowed out a couple of times to take baby Qianci to the clinic for check-ups, but she wasn’t allowed out to walk the child. Mr Hu’s sister and parents were keeping them supplied. She was furious and frustrated at her plight. Both of them are proud that the Olympics are being hosted by Beijing, but they think the Games have been hijacked.

“These Games are for the Chinese Communist Party and they violate the basic human rights of Chinese people,” she said.

Living under house arrest was difficult for an energetic figure such as Mr Hu, who spent so much of his time on the road defending the causes dear to his heart. The walls of his apartment are covered with still-life drawings, and a DVD boxed set of Friends on the coffee table bears testament to the tedium of imprisonment. In a basket on the table sat a pharmacy of medicines ranging from vitamins to kidney treatments.

During his confinement he kept a video diary, and one particularly affecting scene is of a police officer walking behind Ms Zeng, cruelly mimicking her walk and making ape-like gestures.

By nature a cheerful person, Mr Hu refuses to be bowed by his experiences and the events which have befallen his family. He doesn’t look tough, but he has clearly learnt resilience from his parents. Although a Beijing native, his parents were declared “rightists” during the Mao era in the 1950s, and then were sent to the countryside in Hunan during the Cultural Revolution for re-education.

“So I’m from Beijing, but I’m not really a Beijinger. I speak Mandarin rather than Beijing dialect,” he said. A square peg in a round hole from an early age.

He studied in Beijing but by 1996 he had started on his path of activism and lobbying for change. He began doing environmental work, joining the Friends of Nature and heading into the desert to plant trees. Between 1998 and 2000 he was in Qinghai, protecting the endangered Tibetan antelope.

He is best known in China for his work with Aids victims. A taboo subject until the current leadership decided to take steps to tackle the problem, the government’s slowness, particularly at local level, to acknowledge the epidemic contributed to its spread. This was particularly true in Henan province in the 1990s, when millions of people sold blood to unsanitary clinics.

A Buddhist since 1979, Mr Hu’s beliefs are a driving factor behind his activism. “I don’t believe in taking life. This is why I helped the antelope and why I became an Aids activist. I saw a family, a man and his wife and their child, and all of them died within two months of my seeing them. I feel life is so precious, but so easily taken away. And so worth protecting,” he said during our talk.

He has been involved in lobbying for HIV/Aids foundations and has had much success in boosting the profile of the disease and helping sufferers get acceptance in Chinese society.

“Inciting subversion” can earn you five years or more in jail and Mr Hu’s lawyer, Li Fangping, had feared a longer sentence. Another Chinese dissident, Yang Chunlin, who called for human rights to take precedence over the Olympic Games, was sentenced to five years in jail last month on similar charges, although the two trials were unrelated.

John Kamm, executive director of Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that works to free Chinese political prisoners, said the verdict seemed rushed. “From the point of detention to the announcement of the verdict, this case is the fastest we’ve seen and it raises questions here about whether due process was exercised.

“In my discussions with Chinese officials recently, after the events in Lhasa, I was told that any concessions would be seen as a sign of weakness. This appears to be the mindset,” said Mr Kamm. “The Hu Jia verdict to me speaks of this very hard attitude toward dissent and protest that we’ve been seeing for a while.”

The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said it was “appalled” by the sentence and called on the European Union to freeze its human rights dialogue with China.

“The Chinese justice system has, at the behest of the authorities, thrown oil on the flames just four months ahead of the Olympic Games by imposing this sentence on Hu Jia, a figurehead of the peaceful struggle to improve respect for human rights in China,” the group said.

“In a sign of protest, we urge the European governments to immediately freeze the constructive dialogue on human rights that has been conducted with China for the past few years.”

Amnesty International said the verdict was a “slap in the face for Hu Jia and a warning to any other activists in China who dare to raise human rights concerns publicly”.

The official news agency Xinhua said Mr Hu had confessed to his crimes and accepted his punishment, hence the light sentence. His legal team said he had conceded to “excesses”.

“Mr Hu spread malicious rumours, and committed libel in an attempt to subvert the state’s political power and socialist system,” the court said, according to Xinhua.

Mr Hu’s profile has been high for a long time and this is not the kind of case that will be brushed easily aside, particularly when allied to the condemnation of China’s crackdown on violent protests in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas last month.

The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, raised Mr Hu’s case when she visited Beijing earlier this year, and the US embassy in Beijing issued a statement about his sentencing, saying: “In this Olympic year, we urge China to seize the opportunity to put its best face forward and take steps to improve its record on human rights and religious freedom.” The European Union and other Western governments, Germany in particular, have also pressed China on the matter.

Mr Hu is unlikely to appeal against the sentence. Now his supporters in Beijing and elsewhere are waiting to see when he will be allowed to come back to Bobo Freedom City again to welcome people to his home.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hu-jia-chinas-enemy-within-804589.html

Hu Jia: The New York Times

Hu Jia, 34, and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, are prominent Chinese rights advocates who disseminate information about human rights cases, peasant protests and other politically sensitive issues via the Internet, even as they live under house arrest.

On Dec. 27, 2007, Mr. Hu was detained by security services on charges of subverting state power. His wife and daughter remain under house arrest, now cut off from telephones and the Internet.

Mr. Hu has been detained several times, but never on formal charges. For human rights advocates and Chinese dissidents, Mr. Hu’s most recent detention is an example of what they describe as a broadening crackdown on dissent as Beijing prepares to play host to the Olympic Games in August. More than 60 intellectuals have signed a public petition calling for Mr. Hu’s immediate release.

China has jailed 51 online dissidents – more than in any other country – and last year blocked more than 2,500 Web sites, according to Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom advocacy group. — Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/hu_jia/index.html?inline=nyt-per

Subversion Conviction

Chinese Rights Advocate Gets 3 1/2-Year Prison Term

By Edward Cody

Washington Post Foreign Service

Thursday, April 3, 2008; Page A10

BEIJING, April 3 — Hu Jia, a persistent human rights campaigner in custody since December, was convicted Thursday of subverting the Chinese government through his online writings and sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, his lawyer announced.

The conviction, widely expected since Hu’s 3 1/2 -hour trial March 18, was denounced by the human rights group Amnesty International as a betrayal of China’s commitments in winning the role as host of the 2008 Summer Olympics in August.

“The manipulations that led to this guilty verdict are a blatant perversion of justice,” T. Kumar, Amnesty’s Asia advocacy director, said in a statement. “It is deeply disturbing that officials would so openly turn their backs on commitments to improve human rights in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. Hu Jia must be released immediately and unconditionally.”

The conviction added to indications that President Hu Jintao and the Communist Party have decided that enforcing the party’s strictures against political criticism is more important than gaining approval abroad ahead of the Olympics. Under the Chinese system, courts have remained subservient to the party and often solicit advice from political authorities before rendering a verdict, according to Chinese lawyers.

Hu Jia, 34, was convicted on the basis of five articles he posted on the Internet in 2006 and 2007 and several interviews with foreign reporters during which he complained of limits imposed on his freedom to move about during the 17th Party Congress in Beijing last October, his lawyer said.

In the articles, Hu compared the party to the Mafia and called for improved treatment of Chinese with AIDS. He also advocated more freedom for religious activities and greater autonomy for Tibet, taboo subjects in China’s censored political discourse.

The prosecutor maintained, and the court ruled, that those statements violated Chinese law barring incitement to subvert state authority, said Hu’s lawyer, Li Fangping.

“But I don’t think this amounts to inciting to subvert state authority,” Li told reporters outside the courtroom. “He just exercised his right to free speech.”

Li said Hu also was sentenced to deprivation of his political rights, including free speech, for one year after his jail term.

Hu said nothing during the hearing, Li added, but appeared in good health. His mother and his wife, Zeng Jinyan, were present, he added. The lawyer suggested they might appeal to have Hu transferred from prison to a hospital so he can be treated for an unspecified disease

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/02/AR2008040204189.html

4. RELEASE Shi Tao, Journalist

Shi Tao, China

10 years in prison for sending an email. In April 2004, the Chinese journalist Shi Tao used his Yahoo! email account to send a message to a U.S.-based pro-democracy website. In his email, he summarized a government order directing media organizations in China to downplay the upcoming 15th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists. Police arrested him in November 2004, charging him with “illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities.” Authorities used email account information supplied by Yahoo! to convict Shi Tao in April 2005 and sentence him to 10 years in prison.

China’s vaguely-worded legal definition of what constitutes a “state secret” gives authorities broad discretion to detain people who peacefully exercise their right to free expression. In a similar case, authorities arrested government worker Li Zhi in August 2003 for allegedly using email accounts through Yahoo! and another company to make contact with a banned political party. Jailed on charges of subversion, Li Zhi is currently serving an eight-year sentence. China has constructed an extensive system of Internet censorship to silence activists and journalists like Shi Tao. All Internet communications pass through government-controlled routers, and authorities are able to block access to many sites, to filter content, and to delete links or web pages considered “dangerous” or “subversive.”

Shi Tao (pronounced “shur taow”), a 39-year-old published poet and essayist, is held at Chishan Prison in Yuanjiang, Hunan Province, where he is reportedly forced to labor under harsh conditions. His family has been harassed by authorities. His wife underwent daily questioning by security officials and was persistently pressured to divorce Shi Tao, which she eventually did. His uncle and brother have been under surveillance and harassed both at work and at home, and his mother is reportedly monitored and harassed as she petitions for his release.

Amnesty International considers Shi Tao and Li Zhi to be prisoners of conscience, imprisoned for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression, a right protected in international law and the Chinese constitution.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/Global_Writeathon/Shi_Tao/page.do?id=1011500&n1=3&n2=34&n3=65

CHINA: Imprisoned journalist Shi Tao’s family files for review of appeal

New York, August 25, 2005—The mother of a journalist serving a 10-year prison sentence on charges of “illegally leaking state secrets abroad” is seeking a review of her son’s court appeal. Gao Qinsheng, mother of imprisoned journalist Shi Tao, has alleged “serious procedural defects” in the proceeding, the human rights group Human Rights in China (HRIC) reported.

Gao filed a request for review with the Hunan Province High People’s Court on Sunday, sources confirmed to CPJ. Shi’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping, filed a brief in support of the request.

Officials from the Changsha security bureau detained Shi near his home in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, on November 24, 2004, several months after he e-mailed notes detailing the propaganda ministry’s instructions to the media about coverage of the anniversary of the crackdown at Tiananmen Square. Authorities confiscated his computer and other documents and warned his family to stay quiet about the matter.

On December 14, authorities issued a formal arrest order, charging Shi with “leaking state secrets.” On April 27, 2005, the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court found Shi guilty and sentenced him to a 10-year prison term.

On June 2, the Hunan Province High People’s Court rejected Shi’s appeal without giving the journalist a hearing. Mo’s brief argues that the court did not hear arguments in Shi’s defense, nor did it respond, as required by law, to the evidence that was presented. The appeal hearing was not open to the public, which is in violation of the criminal procedure law, the brief said.

“Shi Tao is being unjustly punished by a government that routinely jails journalists,” CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. “His appeal was rejected without the due process accorded to Chinese citizens. His trial and appeal should be thoroughly reviewed by the court. He is entitled to a fair treatment under the law.”

The Chinese government does not tolerate direct criticism of the central government in the mainstream print and broadcast media, and it frequently targets the most strident critics with harassment and imprisonment. China is the world’s leading jailer of journalists; 42 writers and editors were behind bars at the end of 2004, according to CPJ research.

http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/China25aug05na.html

Yahoo May Face Penalty Over Jailed Chinese Journalist

April 03, 2006 — CIO —

Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) could face a fine, a civil lawsuit or both if it is found to have illegally divulged personal data used to put a Chinese journalist in jail for 10 years.

Hong Kong Legislator Albert Ho on Thursday filed a complaint with the government on behalf of convicted Chinese journalist Shi Tao and a friend who traveled to the city. They argue that a Hong Kong company has no reason to comply with a Chinese request for information, and requested that Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data investigate the matter.

Tao, formerly an editorial department head at the Contemporary Business News in China’s Hunan Province, was convicted last year of divulging state secrets by Beijing, in part due to an e-mail Yahoo handed over to Chinese authorities that contained a government warning for commissars to be on guard for dissident activity ahead of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

“We are still looking into the facts to decide if we will carry out a formal investigation,” said Shirley Lung, a spokeswoman for the privacy commission. The agency is required to answer the complaint within 45 days, she said, adding that it will try to decide whether to move forward on this issue “as soon as possible.”

Although a ruling by the privacy commission is not necessary for a civil lawsuit in Hong Kong, any censure of Yahoo Hong Kong would greatly help a civil case against the company. Any Hong Kong government fine or other penalty would be applied to Yahoo only after a privacy commission warning was issued. If the company failed to heed the warning and change its business practices, a penalty would be imposed.

Yahoo denied any involvement in the case by its Hong Kong arm.

“Yahoo Hong Kong was not involved in any way in the disclosure of information in Mr. Tao’s case,” said Mary Osako, a spokeswoman for Yahoo at the company’s Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters, adding that it was Yahoo’s China unit that complied with the order.

She was not immediately able to identify where the servers that contained Tao’s e-mail data were located.

Yahoo has argued that it was only following Chinese law when it provided evidence that helped land Tao in jail, but the incident, along with other freedom of expression issues related to U.S. companies, has sparked a wave of indignation among U.S. lawmakers.

In February, Rep. Christopher Smith introduced legislation that would bar U.S. Internet companies from locating Web servers inside “Internet-restricting” countries such as China, with stiff penalties for those that don’t comply. The bill says U.S. technology companies have succumbed to pressure by authoritarian foreign governments, and are failing to uphold their corporate responsibility to protect and uphold human rights.

http://www.cio.com/article/19872/Yahoo_May_Face_Penalty_Over_Jailed_Chinese_Journalist?contentId=19872&slug=&

Yahoo ‘helped jail China writer’

Internet giant Yahoo has been accused of supplying information to China which led to the jailing of a journalist for “divulging state secrets”.

Reporters Without Borders said Yahoo’s Hong Kong arm helped China link Shi Tao’s e-mail account and computer to a message containing the information.

The media watchdog accused Yahoo of becoming a “police informant” in order to further its business ambitions.

A Yahoo spokeswoman said it had to operate within each country’s laws.

“Just like any other global company, Yahoo must ensure that its local country sites must operate within the laws, regulations and customs of the country in which they are based,” said Mary Osako.

Shi Tao, 37, worked for the Contemporary Business News in Hunan province, before he was arrested and sentenced in April to 10 years in prison.

According to a translation of his conviction, reproduced by Reporters Without Borders, he was found guilty of sending foreign-based websites the text of an internal Communist Party message.

Reporters Without Borders said the message warned journalists of the dangers of social unrest resulting from the return of dissidents on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, in June 2004.

Censorship fears:

The media organisation accused Yahoo of providing Chinese investigating organs with information that helped link Shi Tao’s personal e-mail account and the text of the message to his computer.

“We already knew that Yahoo! collaborates enthusiastically with the Chinese regime in questions of censorship, and now we know it is a Chinese police informant as well,” Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.

Western internet companies have regularly been criticised for agreeing to China’s strict rules governing the internet, which Communist Party leaders fear could be a tool to spread dissent.

Microsoft was criticised in June for censoring what bloggers write.

The companies say they have to abide by local regulations, and point out that since China is set to be the world’s biggest internet market, they cannot ignore it.

“Microsoft works to bring our technology to people around the world to help them realise their full potential,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

“Like other global organisations we must abide by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which we operate.”

Earlier this month Yahoo paid $1bn (£556m) for a stake in China’s biggest e-commerce firm, Alibaba.com.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4221538.stm

5. RELEASE Guo Feixiong, self-trained “barefoot” lawyer.

Dissent with a dose of nationalism

The word “dissident” often strikes me as being vague in China.

I thought about it when news came in recently that Chinese activist Guo Feixiong had been convicted and sentenced to five years in jail.

First off, Guo Feixiong isn’t his real name. I didn’t even know that the first time I interviewed him back in mid-2005 in Guangzhou, where he was helping organize an uprising in the village of Taishi, where residents complained of corrupt leaders. His real name is Yang Maodong.

Second, he’s not a lawyer. Plenty of news articles describe him as a legal activist. In fact, he’s a creative writer who trained himself in the law. More accurately, he might be described as a self-trained “barefoot” lawyer.

Then there’s the bit about him being a “dissident.” Iconoclast? Yes. Social organizer? Yes. But Guo is also a nationalist, and therein hangs a little story.

Guo got arrested a few weeks or months after I first met him. Later, he passed word to my office about his experiences in detention. He said he had been ordered to do prison labor. He refused, and actually issued a legal protest about the matter.

I was intrigued. So I flew back down to Guangzhou to have dinner with Guo and discuss the prison labor issue. Now, everyone knows that prison labor is fairly common in China. I have a friend who does business in Latin America. On a buying trip to Shandong province, he arrived to visit a factory. But once there, a manager said he couldn’t tour inside. It was actually a prison.

In Guangzhou, Guo and I chatted, along with my assistant, and he offered some details about his life in detention. But then I spelled out to Guo that I wanted to investigate prison labor, what products are made in prisons, and who benefits from the huge cost advantages of such low-cost labor, Guo basically went mum.

To paraphrase, he said such a story would be harmful to China’s image and he would not collaborate. I was surprised. Stunned really. I thought that a fellow of his sensitivities would be interested in shedding light on the prison labor practice. But he was adamant in saying he thought such a story would end up hurting legitimate industries, and would do more harm than good. Thus, Guo’s patriotic and nationalist stripes emerged. It was an eye-opener.

Other than what Human Rights in China reports, I don’t know many details of Guo’s conviction following his September 2006 arrest. HRIC says Guo was convicted in Guangzhou Nov. 14 of “illegal business activity” and sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment and fined 40,000 yuan (some $5,350).

Here are three paragraphs taken from their statement.

“The imposition of this heavy sentence for what appears to be a politically motivated prosecution has a chilling effect on other rights defenders and undermines China’s efforts to build a rule of law,” said HRIC Executive Director Sharon Hom. “This result following a procedurally flawed process, a year in detention, and reports of torture, is particularly ironic in the case of Guo Feixiong, who advocated the use of law to seek justice.”

Guo went on trial at Guangzhou’s Tianhe District Court on July 9, 2007, on charges of “illegal business activity” in connection with the publication of Shenyang Political Earthquake, a book concerning a political scandal in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province.

Guo was detained and beaten on a number of occasions in 2005 and 2006 before he was formally arrested. Since being taken into formal detention, he has told his lawyer that he has been subjected to severe physical abuse and round-the-clock interrogation, and he has reportedly gone on hunger strike for a total of 40 days in protest against his treatment.

http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/china/2007/11/dissent-with-a.html

Guo Feixiong Appeal to UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

June 05, 2007

Human Rights in China (HRIC) has received a letter from Zhang Qing, the wife of Guo Feixiong (also known as Yang Maodong) detailing Guo’s torture in detention and asking HRIC to forward the letter to Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. In her letter, Zhang calls on the Special Rapporteur to investigate Guo’s case and draw attention to his cruel and inhumane treatment in detention. A full translation of Zhang Qing’s letter is appended to this press release.

HRIC has previously reported on the Guo’s case and its legal developments. According to the information Zhang Qing has provided to HRIC, Guo has been held in detention since September 14, 2006, during which he has been repeatedly tortured simply because he will not admit to having committed any crime and because he refuses cooperate with the authorities’ interrogations. Zhang says that Guo has been repeatedly subjected to torture and inhumane treatment in the pretrial detention facility in order to extract a confession from him. Tactics used by police have included shackling Guo’s arms and legs to a bed for weeks at a time, and extended periods of sleep deprivation.

Zhang Qing says Guo experienced the worst treatment after being transferred to a detention center in Shenyang. There interrogators tried to extract a confession from Guo by shackling his hands behind his back, sitting him on a stool and striking his genitalia with a high-voltage electric rod. The last such instance was in March this year. Guo has since been transferred back to Guangzhou.

Guo, who provided legal advice in a number of controversial right defense cases, was detained on September 14 and formally arrested on September 30, 2006, on suspicion of “illegal business activity” in connection with editing a book published in Liaoning Province regarding a political scandal in Shenyang City. HRIC recently reported that after the case had been shuttled between Liaoning and Guangzhou, Guo will finally go on trial on June 15 in Guangzhou’s Tianhe District Court.

HRIC condemns the abuse and torture that Guo Feixiong has been subjected to in detention, and calls upon the authorities to immediately ensure his physical safety, including granting him access to medical care and international observers. HRIC calls on the Chinese government to implement its obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture, which prohibits torture, and the PRC Criminal Procedure Law which prohibits the extraction of confessions through torture. Further, in advance of its review by the United Nations Committee Against Torture in November 2008, HRIC calls on the authorities to investigate the allegations of abusive treatment of Guo in detention and take steps to ensure that he is not subject to further abuse.

ADDENDUM:

To: Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture

I am the wife of rights defender Guo Feixiong (also known as Yang Maodong), who was involved in the world-renowned incident in Panyu, Guangdong Province, in 2005 during which the Party village committee head of Taishi Village was recalled from office. For assisting the villagers in recalling the village official, Guo was subjected to four months’ detention. For taking part in rights defense activities on behalf of farmers, on September 14, 2006, my husband was thrown in prison on trumped-up charges. I would now like to recount to you the facts of my husband’s imprisonment and the torture to which he has been subjected, as follows:

Appellant: Chinese citizen Guo Feixiong (originally named Yang Maodong), whose wife Zhang Qing is acting on his behalf in filing this appeal due to his being imprisoned

A. Details of Custody

1. Name: Yang Maodong

2. Sex: Male

3. Date of birth: August 2, 1966

4. Nationality: Chinese

5. Place of residence: Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China

6. Occupation or activities involved in: Writer of articles on freedom, advisor to the Shengzhi Law Firm in Beijing

B. Details of Detention and Arrest

1. Date and location of detention: September 14, 2006, detained at Guo Feixiong’s residence on Tiyu East Road in Tianhe District, Guangzhou City

2. Crime charged with at detention: Detained on suspicion of “illegal business activities”

3. Date and location of arrest: September 30, 2006, at the Guangzhou City No. 1 Detention Center

4. Crime charged with at arrest: Arrested on suspicion of “illegal business activities”

5. Unit that carried out the detention and arrest: Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau

6. Whether or not a warrant for his detention and arrest were produced: Both a detention warrant and an arrest warrant were produced

7. Name of body that signed the arrest warrant or other documents: Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau of Guangdong Province

C. Details of Indictment and Trial

1. Date of indictment: May 15, 2007

2. Crime charged with at indictment: Indicted on suspicion of “illegal business activities”

3. Date of trial: June 15, 2007

4. Location of trial: Tianhe District Court, Guangzhou City

5. Location where currently being held in custody: Guangzhou Municipal No. 3 Detention Center

D. The Facts of the Use of Torture During Detention

Having provided assistance in several rights defense cases, Guo Feixiong became involved in an incident in 2005 to remove the head of the Taishi Village Party Committee from office, and was hired by the villagers to act as their legal representative. For removing this village cadre according to law, the Taishi villagers were subjected to violent suppression by police dispatched by the local government. In the first stage of this movement, Guo Feixiong provided information to the outside world on developments in Taishi, which attracted a great deal of attention from international media and was widely reported on. For this reason, on September 13 Guo Feixiong was detained by police, placed under criminal detention on suspicion of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order,” and held in custody for more than three months, during which time he engaged in protest hunger strikes totaling 59 days. He was released on December 27, 2005. Then, in February, March and August of 2006, Guo Feixiong was attacked and beaten three times by police for no reason.

On September 14, 2006, the Guangzhou police detained Guo on suspicion of “illegal business activities,” with their main basis for detention being a book that he published in 2001 in Liaoning Province entitled An Earthquake That Shook the Political World in Shenyang.

On the same day that he was put into prison, on September 14, 2006, he began a 15-day hunger strike in protest of the government’s suppression of rights defenders. During his time in detention, because he would not admit to having committed any crime and because he refused to answer the questions put to him by police, he was treated violently by police from the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau in the pretrial (detention) facility, and interrogators took turns working him to exhaustion to try to force a confession out of him, and did not let him sleep for several days and nights. On January 11 of this year, when Guo’s lawyer Hu Xiao went to visit Guo in the detention facility, Hu learned that, in order to try to extract a confession from Guo, police from the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau used torture on him and tied him to his bed in leg and arm manacles for 40 days. After that, Guo went on a hunger strike in protest for 25 days.

Because Guo Feixiong went to the prison authorities to complain about the torture inflicted on him, police officers in the pretrial facility carried out vicious acts of revenge on him. They even went so far as to dig their fingernails into their own skin to leave marks, which they then accused Guo of making, and they used this as an excuse to physically abuse him further. Ever since Guo was detained on suspicion of “illegal business activities,” he has been interrogated a total of 175 times.

On May 28, Guo’s lawyer, Hu Xiao, went again to the Guangzhou No. 3 Detention Center to visit Guo. According to what Guo Feixiong told him, when Guo was transferred to Shenyang, he was treated cruelly and inhumanely in a secret location. On February 12, police who were interrogating Guo tied his manacled hands behind his back, hung him at a 180 degree angle, and then strapped him to a “tiger bench” for four hours. The police used high-voltage electric rods to beat his face and hands, which became swollen. They also used electric rods to beat him about the genitals, and they struck his ears with the electric rods dozens of times.

On March 19, on the 11th day before his period of detention and investigation was to end, the police still had not received a confession from Guo, so they again used severe punishment to try to force a confession. They used electric police batons to viciously and continuously strike him about the genitalia. This brutality went on for five or six minutes.

The above are the facts of the inhumane torture inflicted on my husband since he has been held in detention. On the basis of these facts, I appeal to you, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. I devoutly place of all my hopes on you, Mr. Nowak, and I hope that when you hold discussions and negotiations with the Chinese government, you will bring up my husband’s case of inhumane and cruel treatment while in a Chinese prison. This type of case is currently very commonplace in China, where so-called human rights—including the right to silence—are luxury items that ordinary citizens have no right to enjoy. At the same time, I most sincerely and earnestly hope that you and the United Nations will pay close attention to my husband’s case, and that he will be cleared of all charges, found innocent and released.

Mr. Nowak, I wish to convey to you my deepest respect for the results of your 2005 trip to China to investigate torture in Chinese prisons. Your inspection was extremely meaningful in helping to improve the situation of torture in our prisons. I hope very much that you will visit China again for another inspection, so that real improvements can be made in the area of human rights in China, and so that democracy and China’s legal systems can be advanced. Lastly, whatever the outcome of my husband’s ordeal is, I would like to express to you my heartfelt and sincere gratitude.

I wish you good health.

Zhang Qing, citizen of China

June 4, 2007

http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/press?revision_id=40746&item_id=40742

06/07/2007 12:14

CHINA

Guo Feixiong subjected to torture, to “cruel and inhumane” treatment in order to confess

Electric shocks to his genitals, sleep deprivation, shackled arms and feet to a bed are part of the treatment Guo received. His wife wants the United Nations to intervene. Guo (aka as Yang Maodong) defended residents in Taishi village who tried to fight corrupt local officials. He has been in jail without a trial for nine months.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Zhang Qing wants the United Nations to probe the “cruel and inhumane” treatment inflicted in prison upon her husband, Guo Feixiong. Mr Guo, who has been in custody for the past nine months, revealed to the world the (unlucky) fight by the residents of Taishi village against the corruption and violence of the local Communist Party.

In a letter sent to Human Rights in China to be forwarded to Manfred Novak, UN special rapporteur on torture, she accused interrogators of torturing her husband to extract a confession, including the use of electric shocks to his genitals. Human Rights in China said police tactics have included sleep deprivation and shackling Guo’s arms and legs to a bed for weeks at a time.

Guo Feixiong, also known as Yang Maodong, was arrested in September 2006 and is to go on trial next Friday on a charge of “illegal business activity” in connection with a book he edited about a political scandal in Shenyang. He maintains his innocence.

In reality experts believe that his case is connected to his support for the residents of Taishi village in Guangdong province who tried to fight their corrupt village chief and local Communist Party leaders, providing legal assistance and publishing articles online denouncing the situation and the violent methods used by the police against the population.

Mo Shaoping, aide to the attorney representing Guo (Yang) since he was arrested, said that police interrogated him for more than 11 hours every day from September 14 to the 28 allowing him only one hour sleep.

According to the Human Rights Watch in China his treatment got worse once he was moved to a detention centre in Shenyang.

Before his arrest, Guo was briefly detained last year for attempting to organise a hunger strike to protest against his beatings in Guangzhou by thugs believed to have been hired by Taishi village officials.

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=9481&size=A

Permalink | August 5th, 2008

4 Responses to “Update 6: Meet the 5 Prisoners That We Are Asking To Be Released”

exodus8one.org » Blog Archive » Let’s Paint the Town Red Says:
August 19th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
[...] goal which is for China to Ratify the ICCPR, and as a token of good faith, to release 5 prisoners who are unjustly being held [...]
exodus8one.org » Blog Archive » Red Sunday, Paint The Town Red Says:
August 19th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
[...] goal which is for China to Ratify the ICCPR, and as a token of good faith, to release 5 prisoners who are unjustly being held [...]
Exodus 8 one: Painting Hacienda Christian Fellowship Red! « Rochford Community Church Blog Says:
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:18 am
[...] Project’s goal which is for China to Ratify the ICCPR, and as a token of good faith, to release 5 prisoners who are unjustly being held [...]
exodus8one.org » Blog Archive » Out of Sight, Out of Mind… Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 7:49 am
[...] For a newborn, out-of-sight means out-of-mind. Babies react to objects held in front of their face, but appear to forget about them once they are removed from their field of vision. Oftentimes society is the same way regarding prisoners: out-of-sight-out-of-mind. But now that the Olympic spotlight is off China, it is important that we let the Chinese government know our concern for prisoners of conscience has not diminished but burns on. Please pray for those named below, and consider writing in their support. To read about their stories, click here. [...]