Wife of Rights Activist Chen Guangcheng Forcibly Brought in for Questioning on the Way to Her Parents’ Home for Mid-Autumn Festival
October 03, 2006
Human Rights in China (HRIC)
has learned that Yuan Weijing, the
wife of blind activist Chen Guangcheng, was stopped and detained by police in
Linyi City, Shandong Province, on October 3 where she and her daughter were in
transit on the way to her parents’ home for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Sources in China
told HRIC that Yuan Weijing left her house at 7am on October 3 with her
one-year-old daughter. Shortly after
leaving her home, Yuan was followed by five or six individuals. At approximately 9am, they arrived in Linyi City
and planned to transfer to another bus to get to Linshu, but they were stopped
by the police. Among the group of police
were two deputy Party secretaries from Shuanghou
Township, Yinan County
named Zhang Jian and Yu Mingjiang. After
stopping Yuan Weijing’s bus, they announced “[you are] summoned according to
Article 91 of the Criminal Procedural Law,” and then forced her into the police
car. Yuan Weijing had previously been
summoned for interrogation on July 10 and July 20 this year.
After Yuan Weijing was
taken to the Shuanghou
Township police station,
the policemen told her, “Neither the city nor county approve of your visit [to
your parents’ home]. If you insist on going there, we may arrest you, and, just
like Chen Guangcheng, you will bear the consequences of that decision. It won’t be good for your parents,
either.” According to sources, the Chief
of the Shuanghou Township police station was present
through the whole process. Yuan Weijing
was held at the police station where she was taunted and threatened. She was finally released at 6pm that evening.
Since Chen Guangcheng was
taken into custody on March 11, Yuan Weijing has been reportedly kept under
24-hour surveillance by the police. She is followed whenever she goes out, even
when shopping for groceries. After learning of Yuan Weijing’s plan to visit her
parents two days ago, police increased the number of guards outside her house.
It has been over a year since she last visited her parents on August 20, 2005,
where her three-year-old son also lives.
After Chen Guangcheng was
charged with “deliberately
damaging property and gathering a mob to disrupt traffic” in mid-June, his hearing was
delayed until August 18, 2006. Chen
was represented by court-appointed lawyers after police detained three members
of his defense time the night before his trial. On August 24, 2006, Chen was sentenced to four
years and three months’ imprisonment.
Chen Guangcheng is appealing the judgment. After numerous attempts, Chen’s two lawyers,
Li Fangping and Li Jingsong, were finally able to meet with him. On September 28, they were notified by the
Linyi City Intermediate People’s Court that Chen’s appeal hearing would be
closed.
Yuan Weijing noted that
this kind of operating behind closed doors only demonstrated that the Linyi
City authorities were afraid to allow public scrutiny of the evidence and
judicial process, and that if the facts were made public it would prove Chen’s
innocence.
HRIC
condemns the harassment of Chen Guangcheng and his family and urges the
international community to condemn the ongoing crack down on and intimidation
of numerous other human rights defenders in China, including Three Gorges
Activist Fu Xiancai and rights defense lawyers Gao Zhisheng and Guo Feixiong.
HRIC calls on the Linyi City Intermediate People’s Court to afford a full, fair
and open appeal hearing for Chen Guangcheng.
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