http://ownme.msk.ru Сервис свежайших превью новостей правительства США Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:20:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://ownme.msk.ru/obrazovanie/chinese-authorities-urged-to-free-activist-liu-xiaobo/ http://ownme.msk.ru/obrazovanie/chinese-authorities-urged-to-free-activist-liu-xiaobo/#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:24:09 +0000 aron 15379 at http://www.amnesty.org
The Chinese authorities must immediately release a human rights activist whose appeal against an 11 year prison sentence was rejected by a Beijing court, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

The Beijing Municipal Higher People's Court on Thursday upheld Liu Xiaobo's prison sentence for "inciting subversion of state power". Liu Xiaobo, a well-known scholar and advocate of political and legal reform in China, was given an 11 year prison sentence on 25 December 2009 simply for exercising his right to freedom of expression.

"By upholding the verdict the court missed an opportunity to right the wrong. His harsh sentence is a stark reminder to the Chinese people and the world that there is still no freedom of expression or independent judiciary in China," said Roseann Rife, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific programme.  

Several Beijing activists were placed under surveillance beginning Wednesday night or early Thursday morning and prevented from attending the sentencing. Liu Xiaobo's wife was allowed into the court room.

"The case is the third this week which has seen the authorities crack down on activists. The message is clear, if you criticize the system outside the parameters set by the authorities or independently try to organize civil society, you will be stopped." said Roseann Rife.  

On Monday, Huang Qi's appeal against a three year prison sentence was dismissed, while Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday.

Both are human rights activists who have called for accountability for the deaths of children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the military crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Beijing.

Liu Xiaobo co-authored Charter 08, a proposal for political and legal reform in China. The police took Liu Xiaobo from his home in Beijing on 8 December 2008, two days before the planned launch of Charter 08. Numerous signatories of the charter have been questioned and harassed by Chinese authorities since its launch but no one but Liu Xiaobo has been charged or tried.

Nobel Peace Price Laureates Vaclav Havel and the Dalai Lama, alongside many others, have supported the nomination of Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Price. Vaclav Havel co-wrote Charter 77, a document calling for respect of human rights in 1977 in Czechoslovakia on which the Charter 08 was modelled.

Several other signatories of Charter 08 have asked to share the responsibility with Liu Xiaobo and a group of senior Communist Party members including Hu Jiwei and Sha Yexin issued a letter to President Hu Jiantao questioning the legal grounds for Liu Xiaobo's sentence.]]> http://ownme.msk.ru/obrazovanie/chinese-authorities-urged-to-free-activist-liu-xiaobo/feed/ 0 http://ownme.msk.ru/obrazovanie/kitaj-prizval-k-svobodnoj-chelovecheskoj-pravozashhitnik-tyurme-posle-nespravedlivogo-sudebnogo-razbiratelstva/ http://ownme.msk.ru/obrazovanie/kitaj-prizval-k-svobodnoj-chelovecheskoj-pravozashhitnik-tyurme-posle-nespravedlivogo-sudebnogo-razbiratelstva/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:54:24 +0000 aron 15341 at http://www.amnesty.org
Amnesty International called on the Chinese authorities to release human rights activist Tan Zuoren, who was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday for "inciting subversion of state power."

Tan Zuoren was convicted for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party and the government through his articles and diaries posted on-line and on overseas websites concerning the authorities' handling of the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 .

"His arrest, unfair trial and now the guilty verdict are further disturbing examples of how the Chinese authorities use vague and over broad laws to silence and punish dissenting voices,” said Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific Deputy Director at Amnesty International.

"The Chinese authorities cannot continue to claim that they are dealing with human rights defenders according to the law when they violate so many of their own legal procedures in cases like this."

The verdict was announced this morning by the Chengdu City Intermediate People's Court in China.

Tan Zuoren's wife, Wang Qinghua, protested the conviction and told Amnesty International that "even one day of imprisonment is too much. He only exercised his freedom of expression and addressed corruption from his own conscience."

Tan Zuoren’s trial on 12 August was grossly unfair and disregarded China's criminal procedure law. His lawyers reported they were unable to call their witnesses to testify in court or show the video footage they prepared, and they were unable to present their defence.

One of the defense witnesses, internationally acclaimed artist Ai Weiwei, was beaten and illegally detained by individuals in uniform claiming to be police for hours until after the trial ended.

Two Hong Kong journalists were prevented from covering his trial when local police detained them in their hotel room under the guise of searching for drugs. Police barred supporters of Tan Zuoren from the courtroom, allowing only his wife and one of his daughters, from attending the trial. Court officials filled the rest of the seats. Journalists were again harassed today trying to cover the story at the court.

The Court also violated criminal procedure law by delaying the verdict for four months with no explanation to Tan Zuoren’s lawyers.

"By silencing human rights defenders the Chinese authorities are denying society an open and transparent debate and rejecting the concept of accountability. The calls for justice will only become louder as more human rights activists are sentenced," said Roseann Rife.]]> http://ownme.msk.ru/obrazovanie/kitaj-prizval-k-svobodnoj-chelovecheskoj-pravozashhitnik-tyurme-posle-nespravedlivogo-sudebnogo-razbiratelstva/feed/ 0 http://ownme.msk.ru/obrazovanie/kitaj-s-cenzura-v-internete-neobxodimo-ostanovit/ http://ownme.msk.ru/obrazovanie/kitaj-s-cenzura-v-internete-neobxodimo-ostanovit/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 17:24:41 +0000 aron 14955 at http://www.amnesty.org http://ownme.msk.ru/obrazovanie/kitaj-s-cenzura-v-internete-neobxodimo-ostanovit/feed/ 0