July-December 2010 caselist - PEN International

his reporting on human rights violations and his political commentariespublished on the Internet. He is also an active member of the bannedChina Democracy Party (CDP). Honorary Member: IndependentChinese PEN Centre. [RAN 37/07 - 3 October 2007; Update #1 to RAN37/07 - 6 February 2008].LU JianhuaD.o.b: 03/07/1960. Profession: Research Professor at the ChineseAcademy of Social Sciences, Deputy Director of Public Policy Researchand Executive Director of the China Development Strategy. Date ofarrest: April 2005. Sentence: 20 years in prison. Expires: April 2025.Details of trial: First arrested in April 2005 on charges of ‘leakingstate secrets’. Convicted on 18 December 2006 to 20 years in prisonfor leaking state secrets to a Hong Kong reporter (Ching Cheong, seeabove) who was sentenced to five years for spying. Human rights groupshave questioned the evidence in the reporter’s case, but Lu’s trial washeld in secret and reportedly only lasted for 90 minutes. Place of detention:Beijing City jail. Treatment in prison: Reportedly held incommunicado.His wife is not allowed access to him. Honorary member:Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC).LIU XiaoboD.o.b: 28 December 1955. Profession: Prominent dissident writer,former President and current Board member of the Independent ChinesePEN Centre. Date of arrest: 8 December 2008 Sentence: Eleven yearsin prison. Expires: 21 June 2020. Details of arrest: Arrested for signingCharter 08, a declaration calling for political reforms and human rights.Held under Residential Surveillance, a form of pre-trial detention, atan undisclosed location in Beijing, until he was formally charged with‘spreading rumours and defaming the government, aimed at subversionof the state and overthrowing the socialism system in recent years’ on 23June 2009. The charge is said to be based on his endorsement of Charter08 and over twenty articles published between 2001-2008. Details ofthe trial: On 25 December 2009 Liu was sentenced to eleven years inprison and two years deprivation of political rights on charges of “incitementto subversion of state power. In early February 2010 a BeijingCourt rejected his appeal. Place of detention: On 1 May 2010 Liu wastransferred from a detention centre in Douge Zhuang, Beijing, to theremote Jinzhou Prison in Liaoning. Other information: Liu Xiaobo isamong a large number of dissidents to have been detained or harassedafter issuing an open letter calling on the National People’s CongressStanding Committee to ratify the International Covenant of Civil andPolitical Rights (ICCPR), and launching Charter 08, a declaration callingfor political reforms and human rights. These activities formed part ofcampaigns across China to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights (10 December), and the Charterhas now been signed by more than 8000 scholars, journalists, freelancewriters and activists. Recipient of American PEN 2009 Freedom toWrite award and the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. His wife was unable totravel to Norway to receive the Nobel Prize on his behalf and has beenplaced under house arrest. Many of his supporters have been arrested orharassed since the prize was announced. Previous political imprisonment/problems:Liu Xiaobo first received support from PEN in 1989,when he was one of a group of writers and intellectuals given the labelthe “Black Hands of Beijing” by the government, and arrested for theirpart in the Tiananmen Square protests. Liu has since spent a total of fiveyears in prison, including a three year sentence passed in 1996, and hassuffered frequent short arrests, harassment and censorship. Honorarymember: Honorary President of Independent Chinese PEN Centre(ICPC), and Honorary Member of Scottish, German, American, Czech,Sydney, Iceland, English and Portuguese PEN Centres.LU Zengqi and YAN QiuyanProfession: Falun Gong members and Internet writers/publishers. Dateof arrest: Not known. Sentence: 10 years in prison respectively. Expires:2014 Details of trial: Sentenced by Court No.1 in Chongqing, westernChina, on 19 February 2004 to ten years in prison each for writing andpublishing respectively an online publication which according to thecourt verdict “tarnished the image of the government by broadcastingfabricated stories of persecution suffered by cult members”. The newsletteralleged the ill treatment in prison of a fellow Falun Gong member.Abdulghani MEMETEMIND.o.b.: 1964 Profession: Writer, teacher and translator from the XinjiangUighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Date of arrest: 26 July 2002Sentence: 9 years’ imprisonment. Expires: 25 July 2011 Details ofarrest: Reported in August 2004 to have been detained since July 2002 oncharges of “sending secret state information out of the country”. Reportedlyarrested in Kashgar on 26 July 2002. Since 1999 Memetemin hadprovided information on a voluntary basis to the East Turkistan InformationCentre (ETIC), a Uighur rights and pro-independence group run byexiled Uighurs in Germany and described by China as a terrorist groupalthough the group is not known to have advocated violence. Detailsof trial: Convicted in June 2003 by the Kashgar Intermediate People’sCourt of “violating state secrets and sending them outside the country”.Sentenced to nine years in prison. Charges against him are believed tohave included translating state news articles into Chinese from Uighur,forwarding official speeches to the ETIC, which is banned in China,and conducting reporting for the ETIC. Also accused of recruiting otherreporters for the ETIC. Said to have been denied legal representation athis trial and to have been denied access to his wife and children since hisarrest. Reportedly tortured in detention. Honorary member of: Germanand Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC).LUO YONGQUAND.o.b.: 24/06/72 Profession: Poet and dissident. Date of arrest: 20May 2009 Sentence: Two years’ Re-education Through Labour (RTL).Expires: 19 May 2011 Details of arrest: Arrested by PSB officials fromhis home in Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province, after two of his poemswere broadcast by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV). Detailsof trial: Administratively sentenced in June 2009 for publishing ‘Anti-Government and Party’ poems. Place of detention: Sanshui RTL camp,Foshan City, Guangdong province. Treatment in detention: Said to beforced to do 12-13 hours a day of hard labour without sufficient food.Due to financial difficulties and his mother’s poor health, Luo is unableto pay for basic necessities in prison such as shoes and food. In October2009 he issued an appeal for help. Other information: He is a memberof the China Democratic Party (CDP) and a signatory of Charter 08.Previous political imprisonment/problems: In 2001 he was sentencedto three years’ RTL for his membership of the CDP.Hailaite NIYAZI (aka Hairat or Gheyret Niyaz)Profession: Freelance journalist and former editor of the website UighurOnline (www.uighurbiz.net). Date of arrest: 1 October 2009 Sentence: 1543