July-December 2010 caselist - PEN International

trial: Sentenced on 4 March 2009 by the Intermediate People’s Court ofJixi City, to four years in prison and five years of deprivation of politicalrights, for ‘Inciting subversion of State power’ under Article 105(2)of the Chinese Criminal Code. Reports say that there were four countsagainst him: distribution of the article ‘Save China, Implement ConstitutionalDemocracy’ to attendants at the National People’s Congress inBeijing in 2005; giving interviews to the Epoch Times and other media;drafting over twenty articles against socialism; and receiving funds fromlocal and overseas organisations. There are allegations that Yuan was illtreatedwhile in police custody and that a confession obtained in thismanner was use at the trial. Place of detention: 1st Detention Centre ofJixi City, Heilongjiang Province. Honorary member of: IndependentChinese PEN Centre (ICPC).ZHANG QID.o.b.: 30/03/1983 Profession: Internet writer and activist. Date ofarrest: 26 June 2008 Sentence: 4 years in prison Expires: 25 June 2012Details of arrest: Arrested on suspicion of ‘inciting subversion of Statepower’ whilst travelling in the area affected by the earthquake in Sichuanprovince which struck on 12 May 2008. He was formally charged on 20June 2008 on suspicion of ‘illegally obtaining state secrets’, apparentlyfor taking a photograph of an abandoned tank, but this charge was laterdropped and he was tried on the more serious charge of ‘inciting subversion’for his critical online writings and activism. Details of trial: Zhangwas tried in a one-hour closed trial by the Intermediate People’s Courtof Chongqing City on 15 June 2009 and convicted of ‘inciting subversionof state power’ for his online dissident writings. He was sentencedto 4 years in prison on 8 July for eight articles published online. Placeof detention: Detention Centre of Qixian County, Chongqing. Treatmentin prison: Held incommunicado Other information: Zhang Qi isthe Chongqing co-ordinator of the online political group Pan-Blue Alliance,which reportedly supports the government in Taiwan. Honorarymember of: Independent Chinese PEN Centre.ZHENG YichunD.o.b.: 27 January 1959 Profession: Poet, professor and freelance journalistDate of arrest: 3 December 2004 Sentence: 7 years in prisonExpires: 19 December 2011 Details of arrest: Zheng Yichun wasdetained on 3 December 2004 and on 20 December 2004 arrested on acharge in connection with sixty-three articles he had written for foreignbasedpublications and websites. Details of trial: The Yingkou IntermediatePeople’s Court, Liaonin Province, northeast China convicted ZhengYichun, on 21 July 2005 of ‘incitement to subversion of state power’ forhis critical writings, many of which were posted on-line on overseas websites.He was sentenced on 20 September 2005 to 7 years imprisonmentand 3 years deprivation of political rights, and his appeal was rejectedon 22 December 2005. Place of detention: Jinzhou Prison, JinzhouCity, Liaoning Province. Health concerns: Zheng Yichun is a diabetic.It was reported that on 26 May 2008 Yichun suffered cerebral thrombosis,which caused paralysis in part of his face and difficulty in movinghis right arm. Zheng was sent to a hospital outside the prison, but wasreturned after doctors decided that his condition was not serious. Medicalfacilities in the prison are not able to treat his condition and his relativesare therefore said to be requesting his release on medical parole. Professionaldetails: A member of the Korean minority. Has published eightcollections of poetry and nearly 200 essays and political articles. Publicationsto have recently carried his articles include Da Ji Yuan (EpochTimes) and websites such as Boxun and Min Zhu Lun Tan (DemocracyForum), all of them based abroad. Before his arrest, Zheng was also anEnglish professor at the University of Liaoning. Honorary member of:PEN Canada, PEN Flanders and Independent Chinese PEN.Imprisoned: InvestigationAblikim ABDIRIYIM: Political activist. Sentenced to nine years inprison on 17 April 2007, on charges of ‘posting secessionist articlesonline’. Abdiriyim is the son of a renowned activist and belongs to theUighur ethnic minority group. He was reportedly charged with tryingto post two articles online, that he had downloaded on the Internet.According to the verdict, ‘these articles distorted China’ human rightsand ethnic policies’. He was arrested in June 2006 and he is being heldincommunicado. Chinese official sources name the articles concernedas ‘Issues to be aware of and prohibited in Jihad’ and ‘Struggle towardindependence’. Abdiriyim’s family reported that during his trial, he wasdenied legal representation. PEN International is seeking informationthat would clarify his position on the use of violence to achieve change.(AI considers him to be a prisoner of conscience).*LI Tie: Activist and internet writer, aged 48. Reportedly arrested on 15September 2010 by the Wuhan City Public Security Bureau on suspicionof ‘inciting subversion of state power’ for his critical articles. The chargewas changed to the more serious ‘subversion of state power’ on 22 October2010. Li is known for his articles about democracy and constitutionalgovernment published online on overseas Chinese language websites suchas Democratic China and the news portal Boxun. He is also a signatory ofCharter 08. Still detained pending trial as of 31 December 2010.*LIU Yonggen: D.o.b.: 07/08/1963. Internet writer. Reportedly arrestedby the Xinyang City Public Security Bureau (PSB), Henan Province, onthe 10 September 2009 and formally arrested on 28 September 2009.Charged on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power for a numberof critical articles published on overseas Chinese websites such as EpochTimes. Tried on 18 January 2010 by the Xinyang City IntermediatePeople’s Court, no verdict has yet been announced. Held at the No.1Detention Centre of Xinyang City, Henan Province, as of 31 December2010. WiPC seeking an update.Brief detention*GUO Xianliang: Internet writer, engineer and member of theIndependent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC). Arrested on 28 October 2010by Guangzhou police whilst on a business trip to the city and held onsuspicion of ‘inciting subvertion of state power’ for distributing leafletsin support of Nobel Laureate and writer Liu Xiaobo. Released on bail on26 November 2010 and returned to his home city of Kunming. Amongat least forty ICPC members and activists to have been briefly detainedor harassed since October 2010 following the award of the 2010 NobelPeace Prize to writer Liu Xiaobo (see ‘main case’ above).*XIE Chaoping: Journalist and writer. Former journalist for the ProcuratorialDaily, a newspaper under direct control of the Procurator ofthe People’s Republic of China. Detained at his home in Beijing on 19August 2010 by security officers in Weinan, Shaanxi province, followingthe publication of his book The Great Migration, which is about forcedrelocations in the 1950’s to make way for the construction of the Sanmendam on the Yellow River. The book charts the struggles of hundreds ofthousands of people relocated due to the project, and reportedly accusesauthorities in Weinan, Shaanxi province, of embezzling money meant tocompensate those affected. Xie was accused of ‘illegal business activi-47