All News items from China

The European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded this year to Chinese human rights defender Hu Jia, EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering announced in Strasbourg today. The prize ceremony will take place in Strasbourg on 17 December.

Link here to the statement by the European Parliament

According to a recent report by Human Rights in China (HRIC) the organisation has learned that Shanghai human rights defender Chen Xiaoming died on July 1, shortly after being released on medical parole. Numerous earlier requests by Chen's family for medical parole had been refused.  

Front Line is alarmed over reports that Chinese Human Rights Defender Hu Jia may be placed under forced psychiatric care.

Forced psychiatric treatment has been used in the past by the Chinese authorities as a means of persecuting human rights defenders.

Hu Jia was confined to house arrest before a visit to Henan Province by the U.S ambassador to Beijing, Clark Randt, on 26 May 2004, when Randt was delivering medicine and other emergency supplies to the province of Henan. Henan has one of the highest AIDS/HIV infection rates in the world. Mr. Hu Jia is a Chinese HIV/AIDS activist. Lobbying by non-governmental organizations particularly on controversial subjects like HIV/AIDS in China are rare.

On the 4th of June, Hu Jia and his mother's home was sealed off by a large number of police. Since then it is reported that Hu Jia has been beaten by police on two occasions, and he was detained in police custody for three days. His house has been under surveillance following his release.

Front Line is alarmed that forced psychiatric treatment could be used as a form of oppression on the part of the Chinese authorities, and could cause Hu Jia irreparable damage.

Front Line has received reports from Human Rights in China (HRIC) that the Internet activist Du Daobin is going on trial on May 18 2004 in closed proceedings, and without the benefit of his chosen defense counsel.

According to sources in China, although Du Daobin’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping, had presented the court with his schedule of commitments, he was notified just three days ago to present his defense statement on Du’s behalf at the Intermediate People’s Court in Xiaogan City, Hubei Province. Mo was unable to rearrange his other commitments on such short notice, and so will not be able to appear at the trial. Mo has had no option but to file his written statement with the court, depriving Du of effective oral argument and significantly weakening his defense.  

On 26 February 2004, Tibet’s longest serving female political prisoner, Phuntsok Nyidron, was reportedly released by the Chinese authorities, and is now staying with her family in Lhasa. Phuntsok Nyidron had already served 15 years’ term out of her 16 years’ imprisonment sentence, and was the last of the “Drapchi 14 singing nuns” to be released.

On 14 October 1989, Phuntsok Nyidron was allegedly arrested for taking part in a peaceful pro-independence demonstration in Lhasa. She was reportedly sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment on charges of “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement against the masses” and for being a “ring leader” of the demonstration. In 1993, Phuntsok Nyidron reportedly recorded songs of freedom in Drapchi prison along with 13 other nuns which led to the extension of her imprisonment sentence by another eight years. In April 2001, her sentence was reportedly reduced by a year and she was due for release in 2005.