This picked up by the China Law Discussion list from China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group….
Strongly Condemns Shanghai Public Security Officers’ Unlawful Violent Detention of Lawyer Zheng Enchong
Shanghai human rights lawyer Zheng Enchong was summoned for interrogation (chuanhuan) again by the public security last Wednesday (17 June 2009). He was violently searched, stripped, and forced to stand naked. Lawyer Zheng immediately made a written protest, and planned to make a complaint to the Central government. He criticized that the authority adopted the brutal measures used on Falun Gong members on him. The China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group strongly condemns the Shanghai public security officers’ unlawful and violent acts towards Lawyer Zheng, and calls on the Chinese government to stop harassing Zheng.
Last Wednesday morning, four police officers from Shanghai Zhabei District public security bureau summoned Lawyer Zheng for interrogation in the name of “economic investigation”. Lawyer Zheng was detained for over nine hours. During the detention, Lawyers Zheng was smashed by public security officers in turns. He was smashed in the face for about five or six times, and the back of his head was hit three times. Public security officers also tried to scald his lips and eyelids with cigarettes. Later, the police officers pulled him up from his seat, kicked off his shoes and stripped him off, leaving him only with a briefs and made him stood nearly naked for fifteen minutes. The money, pen, keys, and other belongings in his pockets, including the Bible and biscuits were all thrown onto the floor. Lawyer Zheng said that after the violent body search, and before having any interrogations, a written statement had been prepared for him to sign, but he used the chance to make a written protest on it; he recorded the violent search, the public security’s beating and stripping of him on the statement.
Lawyer Zheng has been devoted in rights protection works. In 2003, he represented displaced residents from Dongbakuai neighbourhood to sue Shanghai property tycoon Zhou Zhengyi for his collusion with Jing’an District government officials to illegally acquire the residents’ land. However, his helping of the displaced residents angered the Shanghai authorities, and he was detained and placed under investigation.
In October 2003, Lawyer Zheng was convicted of “illegally providing state secrets to entity outside China” and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by Shanghai Second Intermediate People’s Court. After serving almost the full sentence, Lawyer Zheng was released in June 2006. Since then he was kept under surveillance and house arrest for part of the times. In the past three years, Lawyer Zheng was summoned for 62 times. After his release from prison in July 2006, he was summoned by the Shanghai public security for eight hours, during which Lawyer Zheng was beaten four times, injuring his legs and making it difficult for him to walk. After meeting a member of the European Parliament on 22 November 2008, he was summoned for investigation immediately. Lawyer Zheng was also summoned for investigation twice by Shanghai public security on 3 and 4 December 2008 after he signed the “Charter 08”; and on 10 December, the 60th anniversary of the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, he was summoned for investigation for eight hours again. In April 2009, Lawyer Zheng asked for investigations against the properties of a number of senior officials; this offended the relevant officials and he was summoned even more frequently. Within two and a half months, he was summoned for almost 20 times, his house was searched twice and some of his properties were confiscated.
The China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group strongly condemns the Shanghai public security’s unlawful violence and humiliation towards Lawyer Zheng. We also express strong dissatisfaction towards the authorities’ long-term harassment to Lawyer Zheng and his family. We contend that it is legal and legitimate for Lawyer Zheng to serve civil groups as legal advisers, and we call on the Shanghai authorities to stop harassing Lawyer Zheng.
China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group
22 June 2009
(Translated from the original Chinese statement issued on 19 June 2009 http://www.chrlcg-hk.org/?p=435)
