Chinese Authorities Release AIDS Activist Hu Jia After 41 Days in Detention

April 28, 2006

Chinese authorities released AIDS activist Hu Jia on March 28 after 41 days in detention, according to a March 29 Reuters article. Hu said the questioning he received while in detention made it clear that authorities detained him for helping organize a nationwide hunger strike by human rights defenders against government repression. Hu had been missing since February 16 and was under residential surveillance at the time he disappeared, according to a March 22 Toronto Globe and Mail article.

Chinese authorities released AIDS activist Hu Jia on March 28 after 41 days in detention, according to a March 29 Reuters article. Hu said the questioning he received while in detention made it clear that authorities detained him for helping organize a nationwide hunger strike by human rights defenders against government repression. Hu had been missing since February 16 and was under residential surveillance at the time he disappeared, according to a March 22 Toronto Globe and Mail article.

Hu said that security officials took him from his home and held him on the outskirts of Beijing without any legal formalities and without notifying his family, according to the Reuters article. Hu said he plans to sue Beijing public security officials for unlawful detention.

Authorities have detained Hu many times in the past. In November 2005, public security officers detained Hu after he attempted to deliver a petition on behalf of 50 AIDS patients to Vice Premier Wu Yi. In August 2005, security officers beat and detained Hu during the visit of Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. In January 2006, police placed Hu under surveillance and house arrest before the anniversary of the death of former Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang, according to a January 12 Radio Free Asia report. In February 2006, Hu resigned from Loving Source, an organization he helped found in 2003 to assist the orphans of AIDS victims, citing government pressure on international donors that fund Loving Source.

Human rights organizations had expressed concern about Hu's disappearance. U.N. officials prepared a document expressing concern about Hu's disappearance, according to a March 17 Associated Press article reprinted on the Web site of the United Nations Office at Geneva. The Beijing office of UNAIDS reported Hu's case to the Health Ministry in February. Amnesty International urged public action on Hu's case in a February 23 press release.