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China Arrests, trials and sentences offer no respite for Chinese dissidents
Reporters Without Borders / 无国界记者 / 新闻稿 / Communiqué de presse 2012.01.04
Reporters Without Borders reiterates its condemnation of the government’s persecution of human rights defenders and dissidents, which was stepped up during the end-of-year holiday period with a wave of arbitrary arrests, unfair trials and long jail sentences targeting cyber-dissidents in particular.
Gao Zhiyi, the brother of the well-known human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟), reported on 1 January that he had just received an official letter confirming that Gao has been jailed. The New China government news agency had announced on 16 December that Gao was in detention but it was not known where. The letter said he is being held in Shaya prison in Xinjiang, a remote northwestern region that is notorious as China’s “gulag.”
Gao’s wife had urged the international community to intercede in support of her husband in an http://www.hrichina.org/content/5732interview on 20 December for the US-based NGO Human Rights in China.
Two other human rights defenders, the lawyerNi Yulan (倪玉兰) and her husband Dong Jiqin (董继勤), are currently being tried in Beijing on charges of disturbing public order, destroying public and private property, and offensive treatment of other persons, with aggravating circumstances. Ni is also accused of fraud.
After an initial hearing on 29 December, the court adjourned to issue its verdict on a date that has not yet been scheduled. The couple has been detained since April pending trial. Ni has serious health problems due to injuries received during an earlier spell in prison in 2002.
The start of their trial came just days after two cyber-dissidents received long jail sentences in western China on subversion charges. A Sichuan court gave Chen Wei (陈卫) a nine-year sentence on 23 December. Then, on 26 December, a Guizhou court sentenced Chen Youcai (陈友才), who uses the pen-name ofChen Xi (陈西), to 11 years in prison.
The pace of these trials suggests that there will be no let-up in 2012.
The following three cyber-dissidents were released in the past two months on completing their jail sentences, but 68 others continue to be detained in connection with their online reporting activities, which makes China the world’s biggest prison for cyber-dissidents:
- Wang Lihong (王荔蕻) was released on 20 December on completing the nine-month sentence she received on a charge of disturbing public order.
- Zheng Yichun (郑贻春), a dissident writer, was released on 19 December on completing a seven-year sentence on a subversion charge. He will continue to be deprived of his political rights for the next three years. His relatives had been forbidden to talk to foreign news media.
- Chen Jianping (程建萍), an activist, was released on 9 November on completing a sentence of one-year in a labour camp for retweeting a satirical comment about tension between China and Japan. She will remain under police surveillance.
Source:
Benjamin Ismaïl
Asia-Pacific Desk
Reporters Without Borders
Paris - France
33 1 44 83 84 70
Twitter: @RSFAsiaPacific, @RSFAsiaPacific2 (中文)
Facebook : facebook.com/reporterswithoutborders
http://en.rsf.org/asia,2.html
