Posted
August 13th, 2008
by
***UPDATE: Activist Zeng Jinyan was allowed to return to Beijing with her baby daughter on 23 August, after being detained on 7 August and held in Dalian, outside the capital, for the duration of the Games. She remains under residential surveillance at her Beijing home. Her husband Hu Jia, who is serving a three-and-a-half year sentence for ‘inciting subversion of state power’ for his critical writings and dissident activities, is said to be forced to do hard labour in spite of his poor and deteriorating health. ***
English PEN is seriously concerned for the welfare of Beijing human rights activist, Zeng Jinyan. Zeng, whose husband Hu Jia has been in detention since last year, was featured in PEN’s Women’s Day Action in March. According to our information, Zeng disappeared on August 7, on the eve of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony.
The following information comes from Chinese Human Rights Defenders (August 9, 2008):
“Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕), a Beijing-based human rights activist, disappeared on August 7. All attempts to contact her have failed. It is feared that Zeng has been taken into police custody and might be mistreated.
Zeng has been under intermittent residential surveillance for the last two years by police from the National Security Unit under Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB). Since her husband and fellow human rights activist, Hu Jia (胡佳) was taken into detention on December 27, 2007, Zeng has been under tightened residential surveillance. Journalists who attempted to visit her at her apartment were turned back by those guarding her. As the Olympics open in Beijing, it is believed that Zeng was taken away to ensure that no journalists will have access to her and that she will be unable to speak out about Hu Jia during the Games.
“The Beijing police are either so incompetent that they would let her disappear under their nose or that they must be responsible for taking her away. How can a young woman with an infant child ‘sabotage’ the Olympics while under such heavy and round-the-clock police presence?” asked a friend of Zeng.
CHRD urges U.S. President George W. Bush, French President and rotating E.U. President Nicolas Sarkozy and the chairman of the International Olympics Committee Jacques Rogge, who are in Beijing attending the opening ceremony and meeting Chinese leaders, to ask Chinese President Hu Jintao about Zeng’s whereabouts and situation. They should demand that Zeng be returned home without being mistreated and that once home, she will be free from illegal residential surveillance.”
Please send appeals:
- Demanding that Zeng be returned home immediately
- Seeking assurances that she has not been, nor will be, mistreated
- Urging the Chinese authorities to put a stop to the residential surveillance Zeng has been subject to since her husband’s arrest
- Continuing to call for the immediate and unconditional release of her husband, Hu Jia
Appeals to:
His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People’s Republic of China
State Council
Beijing 100032
P.R. China.
Procurator General Mr. Jia Chunwang
Supreme People’s Procuratorate
Beiheyan Street 147
100726 Beijing
P.R. China
It may be most effective to send the above appeals via the Chinese diplomatic representative in the UK:
Her Excellency Mrs. Fu Ying
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
49 – 51 Portland Place
London W1B 1JL
The following information comes from Chinese Human Rights Defenders (August 9, 2008):
“Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕), a Beijing-based human rights activist, disappeared on August 7. All attempts to contact her have failed. It is feared that Zeng has been taken into police custody and might be mistreated.
Zeng has been under intermittent residential surveillance for the last two years by police from the National Security Unit under Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB). Since her husband and fellow human rights activist, Hu Jia (胡佳) was taken into detention on December 27, 2007, Zeng has been under tightened residential surveillance. Journalists who attempted to visit her at her apartment were turned back by those guarding her. As the Olympics open in Beijing, it is believed that Zeng was taken away to ensure that no journalists will have access to her and that she will be unable to speak out about Hu Jia during the Games.
“The Beijing police are either so incompetent that they would let her disappear under their nose or that they must be responsible for taking her away. How can a young woman with an infant child ‘sabotage’ the Olympics while under such heavy and round-the-clock police presence?” asked a friend of Zeng.
CHRD urges U.S. President George W. Bush, French President and rotating E.U. President Nicolas Sarkozy and the chairman of the International Olympics Committee Jacques Rogge, who are in Beijing attending the opening ceremony and meeting Chinese leaders, to ask Chinese President Hu Jintao about Zeng’s whereabouts and situation. They should demand that Zeng be returned home without being mistreated and that once home, she will be free from illegal residential surveillance.”
Please send appeals:
- Demanding that Zeng be returned home immediately
- Seeking assurances that she has not been, nor will be, mistreated
- Urging the Chinese authorities to put a stop to the residential surveillance Zeng has been subject to since her husband’s arrest
- Continuing to call for the immediate and unconditional release of her husband, Hu Jia
Appeals to:
His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People’s Republic of China
State Council
Beijing 100032
P.R. China.
Procurator General Mr. Jia Chunwang
Supreme People’s Procuratorate
Beiheyan Street 147
100726 Beijing
P.R. China
It may be most effective to send the above appeals via the Chinese diplomatic representative in the UK:
Her Excellency Mrs. Fu Ying
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
49 – 51 Portland Place
London W1B 1JL
Originally posted with the url: www.englishpen.org/writersinprison/bulletins/chinaactivistdetained/
