Attacks on the Press in 2010 - Committee to Protect Journalists

<strong>Attacks</strong> on the Press in 2010confiscated a computer and video equipment from the couple at thetime of their arrest.In the arrest warrant, Sun was accused of possessing an illegal weapon,and a police statement issued on June 1, 2007, said he was the leaderof a criminal gang. Lawyers met with Sun and He that June, but thecouple was later denied visits from legal counsel and family members,according to a Boxun News report. A trial was postponed twice forlack of evidence.A four-year prison sentence for possessing illegal weapons and assemblinga disorderly crowd was delivered on June 30, 2008, in a hearingclosed to Sun’s lawyers and family, according to The Associated Press.Witness testimony about Sun’s possession of weapons was contradictory,according to news reports. The disorderly crowd charge wasbased on an incident in 2004, three years before his arrest. Policeaccused him of disturbing the peace while aiding people evicted fromtheir homes, but the journalist said he had broken no laws.Sun’s wife, He, was given a suspended sentence of 15 months in prisonon similar charges, according to Sun’s defense lawyer, Mo Shaoping.She was allowed to return home after the hearing. The couple has a12-year-old daughter.Prison authorities transferred Sun to Jiangsu province’s Pukou Prisonin September 2008, according to a report published by Boxun News.The report said Nanjing authorities refused to return the confiscatedequipment. Because seeking a sentence reduction would involveadmitting guilt, Sun has resolved to serve the time in full, according tothe report.imprisoned: june 25, 2007Qi Chonghuai, freelance354Qi and a colleague, Ma Shiping, criticized a local official in Shandongprovince in an article published June 8, 2007, on the website of theU.S.-based Epoch Times, according to Qi’s lawyer, Li Xiongbing. OnJune 14, the two posted photographs on Xinhua news agency’s anticorruptionWeb forum showing a luxurious government building inthe city of Tengzhou.Police in Tengzhou detained Ma on June 16 on charges of carrying afalse press card. Qi, a journalist of 13 years, was arrested in his homein Jinan, the provincial capital, more than a week later, and chargedwith fraud and extortion, Li said. Qi was convicted and sentenced tofour years in prison on May 13, 2008.