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Human Rights in China (HRIC)
informs about the arbitrary arrest
of Zheng Enchong, a human
rights lawyer in Shanghai, and further acts of harassment against him.
According to the information
received, on February 16 and 17, 2008, Mr. Zheng Enchong was reportedly
beaten by police officers who were following him and his wife Ms. Jiang Meili. Later on February
17, 2008, he was summoned to the police station and was kept in detention
for over 12 hours. The police asked him about the recent legal aid he
provided to petitioners and victims of land grabs, as well as the
interviews he gave to the Epoch Times on February 12, 2008, in which he
talked about the corruption case of Shanghai tycoon Zhou Zhengyi and the
possible involvement of former Chinese Communist Party leader Huang Ju.
While in detention, he was beaten by unidentified men.
On February 19, 2008, the
interview to the Epoch Times went to press and on February 20, 2008, Mr.
Zheng was again arrested, before being released in the evening. He was
once more beaten by an unidentified person while in detention. As a
consequence, he was wounded and bleeding. He would allegedly plan to sue
the authorities.
Zheng Enchong, a lawyer in Shanghai, had advised more than 500 families
displaced by Shanghai’s urban redevelopment projects on their rights to
fair compensation. In particular, Zheng, despite the revocation of his
licence as a lawyer in 2001, had been advising families involved in a
lawsuit alleging corrupt collusion between officials and a wealthy
property developer.
Zheng Enchong had been arrested on June 6, 2003 and taken to the
Shanghai Public Security Bureau Detention Centre, on charges of
“illegally providing state secrets to entities outside of China” (article
111 of the Criminal Law for
sending two communications to HRIC).
At the court hearing on August 28, 2003, Zheng’s wife, Mrs. Jiang
Meili, and other observers had been barred from the courtroom on the
grounds that the case involved state secrets. Zheng Enchong was
sentenced, on October 28, 2003, to three years in prison and deprivation
of his political rights for one year by the Shanghai Second Intermediate
People’s Court. The Shanghai appeal court upheld the sentence on December
18, 2003.
Mrs. Jiang Meili, the wife of Zheng Enchong, has been detained for
three days illegally until March 1, 2004. On February 28, 2004 Mrs. Jiang went to
Beijing to petition the National People's Congress on behalf of her
husband. In the same day, shortly after 1:00 a.m., five women and two men
burst into her hotel room, bound
and gagged her. She was forced into a vehicle and taken to another hotel
in Hubei's Canzhou City. The next day, five person took her back to Shanghai, where she
was held in the Guangdi Hotel in Hutai Road. During this time, to Mrs.
Jiang Meili they haven’t presented any arrest warrant or given any reason
for her detention. According to the information received, the persons who
have been involved in her detention were officials of the Shanghai
Representative Office in Beijing, the Shanghai Letters and Petitions
Office and the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau (PSB). Mrs.
Jiang Meili was finally released on March 1.
During Jiang Meili’s
next visit to her husband on
November 10, 2004, along with other family members. During the visit,
Zheng said he had been visited a number of times by the director of the
Shanghai’s Judicial Bureau and Prisons Bureau, Miao Xiaobao, who had told
him that if he admitted wrongdoing, his three-year sentence would be
reduced by one year. However, Zheng Enchong refused to do so.
According to information from HRIC, since the beginning of his
imprisonment, Zheng has not been allowed to see his lawyer, as a result
of which he has not been able to file an appeal application against his
sentence before the Shanghai Supreme People’s Court. His wife has filed
an application on his behalf but the Court has not acknowledged it.
Moreover, Zheng reportedly also told his visitors that in spite of
his relatively light sentence, he has been housed in the prison’s high
security section, where he is obliged to share his 3.5 square meter cell
with two other prisoners. In addition, Zheng said also that he has been
denied several times his right to call his family.
According to the information received, during the visit of Zheng’s wife to the prison he asked her
to urge displaced residents to persevere in their legal action against Zhou
Zhengyi, a wealthy property developer, and others involved in a
redevelopment project. When he began speaking about this subject, prison
guards immediately ended the visit, and five or six guards grabbed Zheng
and carried him out of the visiting room.
After the visit, Zheng’s wife and other family members have
written an open letter to the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, and Prime
Minister, Wen Jiabao, calling for their intervention to grant him an
appeal through the Supreme People’s Court.
On 9 December 2005 Zheng Enchong was awarded a Human Rights Award
by the German Judges' Association in a ceremony attended by the German
President Horst Koehler. Zheng Enchong’s wife Jiang Meili, who had
planned to represent her husband at the awards ceremony, was refused
permission to leave China due to an alleged property dispute that she
was suddenly informed about shortly before her planned departure.
Zheng Enchong was released on June 5,
2006 after serving a three-year prison term for “illegally providing
state secrets overseas”. Since his release, Mr. Zheng and his family have
been under effective house arrest and constant surveillance by police .
On July 5, 2007, Mr. Zheng
Enchong, together with other 100 evicted householders, signed a petition
demanding a public trial for Mr. Zhou Zhengyi and for the evictees to be
allowed to attend and testify at the trial. They have received no reply
to date.
On July 24, 2007, at
approximately 7.30 a.m., Mr. Zheng Enchong and his wife, Mrs. Jiang
Meili, went to the Shangai Municipal Higher People’s Court in order to
register themselves to attend the Zhou Zhenghyi’s trial, scheduled for
the end of July 2007. Once the couple arrived at the Courthouse, they
were surrounded by six police officers. Two of them, along with the other
officers, knocked Mr. Zheng Enchong to the ground, beat him and dragged
him nearly 200 metres in an hour-long assault that was witnessed by
hundreds of neighbouring residents. As a result, Mr. Zheng sustained
serious abrasions to his left hand during the struggle.
The police officers then
reportedly pushed Mr. Zheng and his wife into a taxi that took them to
the home of Mrs. Jiang Meili’s older sister, Ms. Jiang Zhongli, on Baochang
Road. According to the latest report, five police cars and more than 30
police officers were allegedly blocking the exits of the street, keeping
Ms. Jiang Zhongli’s home under close surveillance and preventing the
couple from leaving.
In the meantime, more than 50
displaced residents of the Dongbakuai neighbourhood, including Mr. Wei
Qin, Mr. Shi Lin, Mr. Shen Peilan and Mr. Wang Liqing, arrived at the
Shanghai Municipal Higher People’s Court at approximately 9 a.m. to
register to attend the same trial, but they were prevented from entering
the court building by security guards and court police.
Actions required:
Please write to the Chinese
authorities urging them to:
- Guarantee in all circumstances the physical
and psychological integrity of Mr. Zheng Enchong and his family;
- Conduct a fair, impartial and independent
investigation into the allegations of ill-treatment above-mentioned,
in order to identify all those responsible, bring them to justice
and apply to them the civil, penal and/or administrative sanctions
provided by law;
- Guarantee that adequate reparation is
provided to Mr. Zheng Enchong, as a victim of abuses;
- Put an end to any kind of act of harassment
and threats against Mr. Zheng and his relatives, as well as against
all human rights defenders in the country;
- Conform with the provisions of the UN
Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General
Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its
Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually
and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the
protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms
at the national and international levels”, Article 6.b, which
provides that “everyone has the right, individually and in
association with others [...] freely to publish, impart or
disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human
rights and fundamental freedoms”, as well as Article 12.2, which
states that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure
the protection by the competent authorities of everyone,
individually and in association with others, against any violence,
threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse
discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a
consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred
to in the present Declaration”;
- Ensure in all circumstances respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international
human rights standards and international instruments ratified by the
People’s Republic of China.
Addresses:
- Mr. Wen Jiabao, Prime Minister of the
People’s Republic of China, Guojia Zongli, The State Council General
Office, 2 Fuyoujie, Xichengqu, Beijingshi 100017, People’s Republic
of China, Fax: +86 10 65961109 (c/o Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
- Mr. Wu Aiying, Minister of Justice of the
People’s Republic of China, Buzhang Sifabu, 10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie,
Chaoyangqu, Beijingshi 100020, People’s Republic of China, Fax: +86
10 6529 2345, minister@legalinfo.gov.cn / pfmaster@legalinfo.gov.cn
- Mr. Yang Jiechi, Minister of Foreign Affairs
of the People’s Republic of China, Buzhang Waijiaobu, 2 Chaoyangmen
Nandajie, Beijingshi 100701, People’s Republic of China, Fax: +86 10
6588 2594, Email: ipc@fmprc.gov.cn;
- Mr. Meng Jianzhu, Minister of Public Security
of the People’s Republic of China, Buzhang, Gong’anbu, 14
Dongchang’anjie, Dongchengqu, Beijingshi 100741, People’s Republic
of China, Fax: +86 10 63099216
- Mr. Ma Zhenchuan, Director of the Beijing
Public Security Bureau, Juzhang, Beijingshi Gong’anju, 9 Qianmen
Dongdajie, Dongchengqu, Beijingshi 100740, People’s Republic of
China, Fax: +86 10 85222320, Email: wbjc2sohu.com
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
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