Posts Tagged ‘Xu Zhiyong’
December 15, 2013
On 15 December the Latin American Herald reported that the founder of a Chinese civil rights group known as the New Citizens’ Movement has been formally charged with disturbing public order and could face trial this month. The charges against Xu Zhiyong, whose group promotes upholding the Chinese constitution and reigning in the power of Communist Party leaders, were filed at the recommendation of the Beijing police, according to the China Human Rights Defenders organization.Dissidents who attempt to mount protests in China are frequently charged with disrupting public order. Xu’s attorney, Zhang Qingfang, said it was suspicious how quickly the prosecutor’s office filed the charges after receiving the police’s recommendation, adding that authorities may want the trial held over the Christmas holidays so there is less international media attention. Beijing police said Xu, who was arrested in August, “used tactics to organize and carry out a series of criminal activities, including distributing prohibited pamphlets in public places and organizing disturbances outside government installations.” The charges against Xu come shortly after another activist from that same movement, high-profile businessman Wang Gongquan, pleaded guilty to “disrupting public order” a few months after his arrest. The former close associate of Xu’s said he would cut ties with the founder of the New Citizens’ Movement, the South China Morning Post reported earlier this month, citing two sources familiar with the case.
via Latin American Herald Tribune – Chinese Prosecutors Charge Activist with Disturbing Public Order.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: anti corruption, Beijing, Beijing police, China, China Human Rights Defenders, Chinese constitution, Communist Party, Communist Party of China, freedom of expression, freedom to demonstrate, human rights, Human rights defender, Latin American Herald Tribune, New Citizens’ Movement, Public-order crime, South China Morning Post, Wang Gongquan, Xu Zhiyong
September 19, 2013
While Iran has started to free some of its political prisoners, China does the opposite by detaining two prominent rights activists who were en route to Geneva ahead of a U.N. review of Beijing’s rights record. Beijing-based activist Cao Shunli was stopped at Beijing’s airport on 14 September and questioned by state security police, the overseas-based China Human Rights Defenders [CHRD] said in an emailed statement. On the same day, Guangdong rights activist Chen Jianfang was also intercepted at Guangzhou’s International Airport.The activists, who have been incommunicado since, had been en-route to Geneva to attend a training course at the invitation of a Geneva-based rights group ahead of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of China on 22 October. Chen, a farmer-turned-petitioner who has been repeatedly detained in illegal “black jails” and who served a 15-month term in labor camp in March 2010, said she was threatened with violence by airport police, who also tore up her plane ticket. Both women had been active in transparency campaigns around the U.N. review process, sending information requests, suing the foreign ministry, and staging demonstrations outside its gates in a bid to be included in China’s submission to the U.N. “In recent weeks, police in several Chinese cities have interrogated other activists and lawyers about the same training program and warned them about serious consequences,” CHRD said.
(Reported by Wei Ling for RFA’s Cantonese Service, and by Xin Yu for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie).
via RFA’s China Detains Activists Over UN Campaign.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: Beijing, Cao Shunli, Chen Jianfang, China, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, freedom of movement, Geneva, Guangzhou, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, retaliation, United Nations Human Rights Council, UPR, women human rights defenders, Xu Zhiyong
August 11, 2013
Reuters reports that China has arrested an activist on a charge of subversion and the latest sign that the authorities are hardening their stance toward dissent. Yang Lin, 45, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: anti corruption, Bangkok Post, Beijing, Charter 08, China, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, dissidents, illegal detention, Liu Xiaobo, Tiananmen Square, University of Hong Kong's China Media Project, video, Xi Jinping, Xu Zhiyong, Yang Lin
March 13, 2013
On 5 March 2013, human rights defender Liu Feiyue was taken from his home by police in Hubei Province. One week later, he remains missing with no further information available on his whereabouts. Liu Feiyue is a former teacher and founder of Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch, a human rights website based in China which documents cases of human rights violations from all over the country. He set up the website in 2005 after becoming increasingly involved in the defence of human rights in Hubei Province. As a result of his human rights work, Liu Feiyue has been harassed, placed under house arrest, detained and beaten.
Liu Feiyue had been under increased surveillance in the weeks prior to this incident, due to the convening of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress and the National People’s Congress in Beijing, which began on 3 and 5 March 2013 respectively. Liu Feiyue has been repeatedly targeted in the past during politically sensitive periods and has often been brought into police custody without any legal procedures. In addition to Liu Feiyue, it is reported that dozens of other human rights defenders have been placed under house arrest or have had their freedom of movement restricted owing to the governmental meetings taking place in Beijing. Those under increased surveillance include Messrs Hu Jia, He Depu and Xu Zhiyong in Beijing, Ms Liu Ping and Mr Li Sihua in Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province and Mr Feng Zhenghu in Shanghai.
via: http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/21972
Posted in Front Line, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: China, Feng Zhenghu, Front Line Defenders, He Depu, Hu Jia, Human right, human rights, Human Rights and Liberties, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Li Sihua, Liu Feiyue, Liu Ping, March 2013, National People's Congress, Xu Zhiyong
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 