Authorities Release Shanghai Lawyer Zheng Enchong, Restrict His Speech and Movement

Local authorities released Shanghai lawyer and property rights advocate Zheng Enchong on June 5, upon the expiration of his three-year prison sentence, according to a press release by Human Rights in China (HRIC) issued the same day. A June 5 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report (in Chinese) noted that authorities gave Zheng written instruction about how to answer questions from the news media, and stressed that he "lacked the right to serve as a source of information." Zheng was convicted in October 2003 for "illegally providing state secrets to entities outside of China," according to the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court criminal judgment (in Chinese) and Shanghai High People's Court appeals ruling. The trial court judgment subjects Zheng to an additional punishment of deprivation of political rights for one year following his release.

Despite the warnings, Zheng spoke about prison conditions in a June 8 interview (in Chinese) with RFA. In particular, he disclosed that while in prison, he suffered beatings at the direction of authorities at Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai. He also told RFA that prison authorities denied him medical treatment for the injuries resulting from the beatings and denied him visitation rights after he refused to answer questions on a prison-administered political examination. On June 15, Zheng addressed an open letter to the newly-formed UN Human Rights Council and urged it to "pay attention to the various incidents that take place within Chinese prisons, in violation of human rights." He also reported that the Shanghai municipal government dispatched over 20 police officers and over 30 plainclothes security personnel to effectively place him under house arrest after his release from prison.

Since June 5, public security officials have twice summoned Zheng to appear before them for questioning, according to a June 11 RFA report (in Chinese) and June 18 Epoch Times report (in Chinese). RFA noted that on June 10, public security officials questioned Zheng for six hours about his contact with overseas news media. This occurred two days after Zheng's earlier interview with RFA. According to the Epoch Times, on June 18, officials questioned Zheng for another three hours about the same issue. A June 28 HRIC press release further reports that security officers have confined Zheng to his neighborhood and insist he has no right to freedom of movement because he is currently deprived of political rights.

Under Article 54 of the Criminal Law, deprivation of political rights does not include deprivation of the right to freedom of movement. The Criminal Law provides for deprivation of "the rights of freedom of speech [and] of the press," and in 1995, the Ministry of Public Security issued provisions that prohibit an individual who is subject to deprivation of political rights from accepting interviews or delivering speeches. Under Article 13 of the provisions, any individual who violates these prohibitions, but falls short of committing a criminal offense, is subject to public security administration punishments. Article 82 of a new Public Security Administration Punishment Law authorizes public security agencies to summon such an individual for questioning, but requires that agencies notify the individual of the reason and basis for the summons. Article 83 places a general time limit of eight hours on the interrogation process and 24 hours in cases that are "complex."

For information on Zheng Enchong's criminal case, see earlier analyses by the CECC regarding official deprivation of his visitation rights and threats to take him into custody upon his release. See also case information searchable through the CECC Political Prisoner Database and the section on "Denial of Fair Public Trial," in the U.S. Department of State's 2005 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in China.