Plainclothes policemen "kidnap" blind activist's family in Beijing
To prevent them from telling their story, a group of a dozen men broke into a home in the capital and, without identifying themselves, took away the mother, brother and son of Chen Guangchen, a blind activist for human rights who has been in prison since March.
Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) About a dozen men in plain clothes yesterday raided the home of a university lecturer of the Faculty of Law in Beijing and took away the mother, elder brother and three-year-old son of Chen Guangchen, a renowned blind activist of human rights, who was arrested on 11 June.
Lawyers and campaigners following the case said they believed the men were police from the city of Linyi.
The raid took place at around 8pm: the house belongs to Teng Biao, a friend of Chen; he was hosting the family who were to attend a press conference scheduled for yesterday, which had to be cancelled.
Lawyer Xu Zhiyong said Teng was hit by the men as he tried to help Chen's 70-year-old mother. "Police should identify themselves and show validation documents when they arrest people. This is kidnapping," he said.
The press conference was intended to draw international and national media attention to the case of the 35-year-old, blind activist. Chen is known across the country for his work for people with disabilities and for his campaign again government birth control policies. It was thanks to his help that journalists of the Washington Post unearthed 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."
Chen has been detained in prison since 11 March after spending several months under house arrest but formal charges were submitted to his family only at the beginning of June.
Hu Jia, another famous activist, was helping lawyers to organize the conference: he was apprehended by several policemen yesterday together with his wife Zeng Jinyan, as he tried to leave his home. Speaking by phone, he said: "The police told me explicitly that it would be impossible for me to go anywhere today because of the press conference."
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18/02/2020 10:04
