Authorities Formally Arrest Legal Advocate Chen Guangcheng

August 30, 2006

Public security officials in Yinan county, Shandong province, formally arrested legal advocate Chen Guangcheng on June 21, on charges of "intentional destruction or damage to property" and "gathering people to disturb traffic order," according to a June 25 Boxun report (in Chinese) containing the text of the notice of arrest. On March 11, about 100 security officials detained Chen after physically blocking him from seeking out Yinan county officials, according to a June 3 Chinese Rights Defenders (CRD) report. Chen and his relatives had planned to report the beating of Chen's cousin Chen Guangyu by four unidentified men earlier that day.

Public security officials in Yinan county, Shandong province, formally arrested legal advocate Chen Guangcheng on June 21, on charges of "intentional destruction or damage to property" and "gathering people to disturb traffic order," according to a June 25 Boxun report (in Chinese) containing the text of the notice of arrest. On March 11, about 100 security officials detained Chen after physically blocking him from seeking out Yinan county officials, according to a June 3 Chinese Rights Defenders (CRD) report. Chen and his relatives had planned to report the beating of Chen's cousin Chen Guangyu by four unidentified men earlier that day.

In 2005, Chen, a self-trained lawyer drew international news media attention to population planning abuses in Linyi city, Shandong province. According to the June 3 CRD report, Chen is from a village in Yinan county, which is administratively subordinate to Linyi City. On September 6, 2005, officials abducted Chen in Beijing, transported him to Linyi, and placed him under house arrest in his home village. Officials beat him on October 4 and again on October 24. On March 9, 2006, after Chen’s house arrest had exceeded the six-month limit imposed by Article 58 of the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL), CRD worked with Chen’s defense lawyers to submit information about his case to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, and the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Human Rights Defenders. On March 11, Linyi authorities notified Chen’s wife that they had only called him in that day for interrogation, according to the CRD report. But officials subsequently detained Chen for three months without formal charge or trial even though Article 92 of the CPL limits interrogation to a maximum of 12 hours and mandates that a criminal suspect "shall not be detained under the disguise of successive summons or forced appearance." Chen’s wife did not receive further notice about the status of his case until June 11, when Yinan officials informed her that they had placed him under criminal detention effective June 10.

Over 60 Chinese intellectuals have signed a letter (in Chinese, posted by Boxun on June 17) from Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, requesting an end to authorities' harassment of Chen Guangcheng. Authorities have detained several of Chen's near relatives, beaten lawyers representing Chen, and placed several activists under house arrest to prevent them from holding a press conference about Chen's case.

For more information on Chen Guangcheng's case, see the CECC's analyses of official confirmation of population planning abuses in Linyi city in September 2005, Chen's October 4, 2005 and October 24, 2005 beatings, and a February 5, 2006 clash between villagers and officials in Linyi. More information on Chen is available through the CECC Political Prisoner Database. For more information on Population Planning in China, see Section III(i) of the CECC's 2005 Annual Report.