STATE SECRETS: CHINA'S LEGAL LABYRINTH - HRIC

CASE STORY
Chen Guangcheng
30 HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA STATE SECRETS: CHINA’S LEGAL LABYRINTH
Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚), born in 1971 and blind since childhood, is a selftaught
lawyer and activist in Shandong Province who has fought for multiple
rural causes, the most famous of which was a class-action lawsuit he filed
against the city of Linyi over an official policy of forced abortions and sterilizations.
A few days after he met with Beijing lawyers and journalists in September
2005, Chen was abducted by Shandong authorities and returned to Linyi,
where he was placed under house arrest. Despite acknowledgements in official
media the same month that family planning abuses in Linyi had taken
place and were being investigated, Chen was beaten by local officials when he
attempted to meet with visiting lawyers in October 2005. Local authorities
told the lawyers, who were also attacked by unidentified assailants, that
Chen’s case now involved state secrets.
Chen was taken into custody in March 2006, and for three months his status
and whereabouts were not disclosed and his lawyers had no access to him. In
June, Chen was charged with “damaging public property and gathering people
to block traffic” and was sentenced to four years and three months’
imprisonment in August 2006. Chen lodged an appeal of the conviction. In
October 31, 2006, the court overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial by
the county court in Yinan in Shandong Province. On December 1, 2006, the
court of the first instance upheld the original verdict. Another appeal was
rejected on January 12, 2007, and reports continue to surface of Chen’s
lawyers being harassed and hindered in their work.
Information on the above case is taken from HRIC’s human rights database
and website.
Chen Guangcheng