Detained US-based Chinese dissident formally arrestedASSOCIATED PRESS in Beijing A US-based democracy activist detained in China since April was formally arrested earlier this month on charges that authorities still will not specify, the man's brother said Friday. Police in the city of Linyi, in the northeastern province of Shandong, phoned Yang Jianjun on June 21 to tell him that his younger brother, Chinese citizen Yang Jianli, had been formally arrested June 2 and was being held at a jail in Beijing, Yang said. However, police did not provide the family with a copy of the arrest order, Yang said. He said he has spent the past week on buses, taxis and trains trying to obtain the document, which is needed for a lawyer to begin any defense in China. ''I have no other goal other than to get the copy so we can hire a lawyer,'' said Yang, a calligrapher for a government arts institute in the family home of Linyi, 300km southeast of Beijing. Yang Jianli, a Chinese citizen with permanent US residency, heads the Foundation for China in the 21st Century, a Boston-based group that advocates democracy and the rule of law in China. He was detained April 26, during his first trip to his homeland in 13 years, while trying to board a flight in the southwestern city of Kunming using a fake identity card. Yang's wife, US citizen Christina Fu, said he had entered the country on a borrowed passport because China had refused to renew his. Before the telephone call from police, Yang Jianjun said he had visited government ministries in Beijing seeking word about his brother. He said he was unable to gain even verbal confirmation of Yang Jianli's arrest. Yang Jianjun said information given to him by Shandong police suggested that his brother was arrested after a May 10 announcement from China's Foreign Ministry, which said Yang Jianli had already been formally arrested. In China, formal arrest almost guarantees indictment and trial. Yang said police in Shandong told him he would have to go to Beijing to get a copy of the arrest notice. Yang said he visited the Beijing police headquarters earlier this week to find out where his brother was being held and received an address for a jail. Upon going there, Yang said he found the jail had moved long ago. A lawyer gave Yang the address of another Beijing jail, part of the well-known Qincheng facility, saying his brother might be held there. But after he spent a day traveling to the isolated facility, he said officials didn't provide the document and wouldn't say if Yang Jianli was there. Beijing police said they had no information about Yang Jianli and refused to say how many jails the city operates. -------------------------- |
|
|