Teng Biao - who has defended Aids activists, Falun Gong practitioners and farmers fighting for their land - was kidnapped on 6 March and was illegally detained for 2 days before he was released without charge.  Teng Biao was last seen in the evening, being bundled into a black car outside his home in Beijing.

According to his wife, Wang Ling, Teng left home at 8.25pm on Thursday saying he would be back in 20 minutes. About half an hour later, she heard shouting downstairs. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the lawyer being dragged away in front of his apartment by unknown figures as he got out of his car, HRIC said.

During his detention, the police threatened to arrest him and to have him dismissed from his position at the university if he did not stop raising Hu Jia’s case, writing about the Olympics, and accepting interviews from foreign journalists.

Shortly before he went missing, Teng told the Guardian that his passport had been seized, his phone bugged and his emails check by the authorities. He was warned that he also faced the sack from his job as a lecturer at the China University of Political Science and Law and risked detention. He had been recently warned by police that he would be detained unless he stopped talking to the foreign media and writing about human rights abuses in the run up to the Olympics.

Teng is a legal scholar and a good friend of Hu Jia, a Beijing-based HIV/AIDS activist, co-founder and former director of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute for Health Education, a grassroots organisation that aims at educating the public about HIV/AIDS and at advocating for the rights of persons suffering from AIDS.  He co-authored an open letter criticizing human rights violations in an essay called, "The real China and the Olympic Games 2008."  He has also been active in advocating for Hu since he was arrested. 

Other rights lawyers have been allegedly harassed by police in recent days, including Li Heping, whose car was rammed on Friday by a group of unidentified men who had been following him since Hu Jia's arrest, Li told AFP.

The incidents come after rights lawyers and legal advisers such as Chen Guangcheng, Gao Zhisheng and Yang Maodong were arrested, jailed or placed under house arrest for activities aimed at protecting the rights of ordinary citizens.

Background information:

On December 27, 2007, about 20 policemen came to Mr. Hu Jia’s home, surrounded his wife and child as well as his wife’s grandmother, who was visiting, cut off the telephone line and internet connection, confiscated their mobile phones and then took Mr. Hu Jia away, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”. Several policemen remained at their home, keeping Mr. Hu Jia’s wife from publicly denouncing his detention.

On January 28, 2008, Mr. Hu Jia was charged with “inciting subversion of state power” by the Beijing Municipal PSB. He is currently detained at the Beijing Municipal Detention Centre at Dougezhuang.

Since his arrest, the Beijing PSB has denied repeated requests by Mr. Hu’s lawyers to visit him, citing that the case was involving “state secrets”. In addition, more than 20 police officers are permanently stationed around the residence of Mr. Hu’s wife and daughter, who have been prevented from received visitors, and the phone line and internet connection have been cut off.

Mr. Hu Jia and his wife have been under residential surveillance by the Beijing PSB since May 18, 2007, without any legal basis. The surveillance began as the couple were about to set off on a tour of to promote their documentary film, “Prisoners of Freedom City”.