Blind activist Chen's brother beaten by Chinese officials

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Chen Guangcheng's brother describes beating by officials

Chen Guangfu says Chinese authorities tried to make him reveal how his sibling escaped from house arrest

The brother of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has told reporters how he was chained to a chair and beaten for three days to make him reveal how his sibling escaped from house arrest in the Shandong countryside.

Chen Guangfu described his ordeal in an interview with a Hong Kong magazine as his son, Chen Kegui stood accused of attempted murder for fighting back against a similar beating.

A team of independent lawyers who have offered to represent the defendant were dismissed by the authorities and told not to speak about the case.

Chen Guangfu told a reporter from iSunAffairs.com that local officials came to his home after his brother fled late last month from his home village of Dongshigu to the US embassy in Beijing.

"They put me on a chair, bound my feet with iron chains and locked my hands with handcuffs behind my back," he said, according to a transcript of the interview released to the BBC.

"They pulled my hands upwards forcefully. Then they slapped me in the face," he said.

"They first asked me if I knew what this was about. I said 'I don't know', So they beat me and slapped my face. Only on one side, not the other. And they trampled my feet."

He tried not to implicate others by initially claiming all the responsibility for the escape. But he said the interrogators seemed to know who had been involved so it was ultimately impossible to resist.

His wife, Ren Zongju, also described how officials attacked her son.

"They started fighting inside the house. So many people were beating him. His face was bleeding, and his legs. His trousers were ripped," she was quoted as saying. "He said to me 'Mum, I need to get out immediately'. We had 1,000 yuan... So I picked it up and gave it to my son."

The report is difficult to confirm. Journalists have been turned away from Dongshigu and neighbouring villages. But it fits with Chen Guangcheng's telephone statement to a US congressional hearing earlier this week in which he reported a "pattern of abuse" against his relatives.

The blind activist is now in a Beijing hospital, where he is being treated for colitis and injuries sustained during his escape. Under a deal between the US and Chinese governments, he expects to be given permission to study in New York. US authorities say visas for Chen and his family have been prepared. The Chinese side has told him that passports and travel permission will be ready in 15 days.

"I am not worrying. For sure I can get my visa within two weeks," Chen told the Guardian on Friday. "My worry now is for my family. The local police have confessed that they beat [my nephew] Chen Kegui so his fight back is just self-defence."

It is unclear which family members will be allowed to travel to the US with the activist. Although his wife and two children are certain to go, an official said there were also discussions about whether his mother might join them.

Chen's mother is now 78, and suffers from arthritis and coronary heart disease. According to Chen, local officials previously prevented her from getting medical treatment and followed her when she went out to buy food. But now, she is free to walk around in the village and chat to neighbours.

The activist says he is in daily phone contact with her, but that she does not want to go to New York because she is concerned about those that would be left behind. "She is worried about my extended family, especially her grandson, my nephew Chen Kegui," he said.

A senior lawyer defending the activist described to the Guardian last week how he lost his hearing in a beating by a senior state security official after he tried to visit Chen Guangcheng in hospital.

Chen Guangcheng's brother describes beating by officials | World news | guardian.co.uk

 

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China 'bars' blind dissident's family choice of lawyers

Beijing: The nephew of blind activist Chen Guangcheng has been denied his family's choice of lawyers to defend a charge of "intentional homicide" in what one said was an attempt to manipulate a case that has focused world attention on China's human rights.

The decision by police in Yinan in northeastern Shandong province is the latest in a series of moves to deny Chen Kegui legal representation and underscores the hardline stance taken against the family of Chen Guangcheng.

Chen Guangcheng's escape from house arrest last month and subsequent refuge in the US embassy caused huge embarrassment for China and led to a diplomatic crisis in Sino-US relations.

The ruling Communist Party has always been wary of lawyers, who officials suspect could challenge its power through their advocacy of the rule of law. Authorities have frequently sought to prevent lawyers from taking up politically sensitive cases by suspending their licences or threatening them.

Chen Kegui, in his early 30s, could face the death penalty if found guilty of using knives to fend off local officials who burst into his home on April 27, the day after they discovered his blind uncle had escaped house arrest. His lawyers said he did not kill anyone.

Police told Ding Xikui, one of his team of lawyers, that Chen Kegui had been appointed two lawyers from the Yinan government-run legal aid centre, Ding told Reuters by telephone from Shandong.

"They told us: 'According to Chinese law, a criminal suspect can only be commissioned two lawyers. Two have been assigned to him, so both of you can't be his lawyers'," said Ding, who represented jailed Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo at his 2009 subversion trial.

"TRUMPED UP" HOMICIDE CHARGE
"This shows that the authorities in Linyi and the forces behind it are attempting to manipulate the case behind the scenes," said Jiang Tianyong, one of the members of the legal team of more than a dozen lawyers who have volunteered to defend Chen Kegui.

"Chen Kegui will not be able to get a real defence, and the outside world will not be able to know the progress of the case," he said. "In this way, the fate of Chen Kegui will entirely be up to the authorities."

Some legal experts say the charge has been trumped up against him, while others say a death is not necessary for the charge of homicide to hold.

"If I have intent to cause harm and take steps toward that end, I can be convicted of that offence under Chinese law whether I successfully carry out the harmful act or not," Joshua Rosenzweig, an independent human rights researcher in Hong Kong, said in emailed comments.

Police in Yinan were not immediately available for comment. An official who answered the phone at the Yinan Legal Aid Centre said he "does not know about this matter" when asked to confirm that Chen Kegui had been assigned lawyers from the centre.

In recent weeks, Chinese authorities have thwarted plans by other lawyers to meet Chen Kegui and warned others not to get involved, according to lawyer Liu Weiguo.

No family member or lawyer has been allowed to see Chen Kegui, who is held in a detention centre in Yinan, making the lawyers feel "powerless", lawyer Si Weijiang said.

Chen Guangcheng said on Friday that authorities in Shandong had threatened his elder brother, Chen Guangfu, saying that they would increase Chen Kegui's sentence if Chen Guangfu accepts media interviews.

In a videotaped interview with Hong Kong online magazine iSun Affairs uploaded on Wednesday, Chen Guangfu described his torture by plainclothes men after Chen Guangcheng's escape.

The United States has appealed to China to let Chen Guangcheng travel to the United States to study. He said he applied for a passport on Wednesday and that he should get a reply within 15 days.

Chen Guangcheng earlier told Reuters that his nephew was the victim of vengeance by officials incensed at the blind dissident's escape.

"They're simply thugs," said Liu Weiguo, when asked why he thought the authorities had denied Chen Kegui access to the two lawyers. "They're doing this to cover up the truth about the persecution of Chen Guangcheng."

 

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China activist Chen's relatives describe beatings

In their first face-to-face interviews since then, Mr Chen's brother, Chen Guangfu, said he was detained for three days and two nights, interrogated and beaten.

His wife, Ren Zongju, also described how their son, Chen Kegui, was beaten.

Their village, Dongshigu, in Shandong province, remains sealed off.

The interviews were conducted by iSunAffairs.com - a Hong Kong-based magazine - in May 2012 and obtained by the BBC on Thursday.

No other journalists have been able to enter the village since Mr Chen's flight to the US embassy in late April.

The blind activist is now waiting in a Beijing hospital with his wife and two children for passports to be issued so they can travel to the United States.

'Face bleeding'

Brother Chen Guangfu said officials came to his house after the activist's escape. He was hooded and taken away in a car by men in plain clothes.

The fate of all of the relatives and friends who helped Chen is now a real concern. Their crime, let's remember, was to help a blind man who was being illegally confined in his own home to break free..."

"They put me on a chair, bound my feet with iron chains and locked my hands with handcuffs behind my back," he said. "They pulled my hands upwards forcefully. Then they slapped me in the face."

"They first asked me if I knew what this was about. I said 'I don't know'. So they beat me and slapped my face. Only on one side, not the other. And they trampled my feet with their leather shoes."

He told them it was him who had helped Mr Chen because he did not want to implicate others involved, but then realised they knew more details.

''I resisted for a really long time,'' he said. ''In the end I couldn't hold out any more.''

The officials also told Chen Guangfu that his son, Chen Kegui, had hacked and wounded officials. Chen Kegui has since been charged with "intentional homicide", but his lawyer says he was acting in self-defence.

Chen Guangfu's wife, Ren Zongju, said officials were attacking her son.

"They started fighting inside the house. So many people were beating him. His face was bleeding, and his legs. His trousers were ripped," she said.

"He said to me 'Mum, I need to get out immediately'. We had 1,000 yuan... So I picked it up and gave it to my son."

On Friday prominent human rights lawyers said they had been prevented from defending Chen Kegui. The handful of lawyers who have volunteered to defend him told reporters that local officials were not allowing them or Chen Kegui's family members to see him.

Two government-appointed lawyers have been assigned to him instead, police told one of the lawyers, Mr Ding Xikui.

"According to Chinese law, every suspect can only be represented by two lawyers,'' said Mr Ding. ''So we have no way of intervening now.''

'Pattern' of abuse
On Tuesday Chen Guangcheng accused local authorities of ''a pattern'' of abuse against his relatives in a telephone call to a US congressional committee.

The self-taught lawyer, who campaigned against forced abortions under China's one-child policy, was himself jailed in 2006 for disrupting traffic and damaging property, and placed under house arrest after his release in 2010.

He spent six days in the US embassy last month after escaping house arrest, but left to seek medical treatment. He then said that he wanted to go to the US because he feared for his safety.

Amid a diplomatic crisis between the US and China over his fate, Mr Chen was offered a place to study law at New York University after Beijing said he would be allowed to apply to study abroad.

The US says the visas for Mr Chen and his family are ready, and he has since completed his application for a passport. Officials told him on Wednesday that the process should take 15 days.