Detained blind activist and lawyer receive death threats
The lawyer said he received an intimidating phone call while Chen Guangcheng, who has been in prison since March for his campaigns against forced family planning, has been warned by prison authorities that "he cannot get out alive unless he collaborates".
Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) - Chen Guangcheng, renowned blind, human rights activist in China, who is currently in prison, has received death threats, as has one of his three lawyers. This was revealed yesterday by the lawyer himself, Li Jinsong.
The Shandong police gave official notice of Chen's arrest only on 11 June but the activist known worldwide for his campaigns against forced family planning has been missing since March. The charges against him, slammed by the defence as unfounded, are "damage to public property and inciting people to disrupt transport."
His lawyers were allowed to visit him in prison for the first time on 21 June. Three days after the meeting, the lawyer, Li, received an intimidating anonymous phone call. He said that when he answered his mobile phone, he heard a man shouting, "You are seeking death", and added: "He repeated it at least seven times."
The lawyer claimed that Chen, currently being held at Yinan county's detention centre, has received similar threats. "Chen told me he was threatened by one interrogator last Sunday (18 June) morning," Li said. "He told my client, 'it's quite normal if someone dies in the detention centre'. He also warned that 'somebody died several days ago, and you can't leave here if you don't co-operate'."
The lawyer Li said he had filed a lawsuit at the Yinan prosecutor's office on behalf of Chen to complain about his client's treatment in prison. "For myself, I will reserve the right to sue after I return to Beijing," he said. Li said he had kept the recording of the death threat on his phone and had also forwarded it to someone else for safekeeping.
The lawyer said Chen's legal team had been followed since arriving in the activist's home town on 20 June. Their taxi driver was beaten up outside Chen's village yesterday afternoon. The incident prevented them from meeting Chen's family to report his present situation. The activist's relatives have not been allowed to visit him since March.
Chen is known across the country for his work for people with disabilities and for his campaign again government birth control policies. He helped journalists of the Washington Post to unearth evidence of a coercive abortion campaign targeting women in Linyi, Shandong. Thanks to the information he provided, the American newspaper was able to prove that in recent years, the authorities of central-eastern province had forcibly sterilized more than 7,000 people. After the allegations were published, China's Family Planning Agency was forced to admit, on 19 September last year, that some government representatives "had carried out forced abortions and sterilizations in violation of citizens' legal rights."
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15/02/2017 11:22
