Housing Rights Activist Ye Guozhu Suffers Abuse in Prison, Eligible for Medical Parole

February 28, 2006

Housing rights activist Ye Guozhu has reportedly been abused in prison and is currently in poor health, according to a February 1 Radio Free Asia (RFA) article (in Chinese). Ye is serving a four-year prison sentence in the Tianjin Cha Dian Qing Yuan Prison, and became eligible for medical parole on December 27, 2005. RFA reports that prison officials have placed him under high security due to his failure to admit guilt for his alleged wrongdoing. During this period of lockdown, officials have regularly kept his hands and legs shackled to a bed, and his inability to move while shackled has resulted in deformities and swelling in the legs. Ye's brother has expressed concern that Ye might be at risk of death, and that prison officials have not shown due care for his physical condition. RFA notes that the Communist Party Political-Legal Committee in Beijing directly handles Ye's case, and that they have prohibited telephone contact with his family.

Housing rights activist Ye Guozhu has reportedly been abused in prison and is currently in poor health, according to a February 1 Radio Free Asia (RFA) article (in Chinese). Ye is serving a four-year prison sentence in the Tianjin Cha Dian Qing Yuan Prison, and became eligible for medical parole on December 27, 2005. RFA reports that prison officials have placed him under high security due to his failure to admit guilt for his alleged wrongdoing. During this period of lockdown, officials have regularly kept his hands and legs shackled to a bed, and his inability to move while shackled has resulted in deformities and swelling in the legs. Ye's brother has expressed concern that Ye might be at risk of death, and that prison officials have not shown due care for his physical condition. RFA notes that the Communist Party Political-Legal Committee in Beijing directly handles Ye's case, and that they have prohibited telephone contact with his family.

According to September 2004 articles by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Agence France-Presse (AFP), Ye was detained on August 27, 2004, several days after he applied for a permit to hold a protest against forced evictions. His own family's home was allegedly demolished in May 2003 to make way for Beijing Olympics construction, prompting his brother to attempt suicide near Tiananmen Square in October 2003. Ye is a leading activist on the issue of forced evictions in Beijing and has been vocal about the government's "unchecked demolition" and the Chinese public's "lost confidence," according to a BBC article on June 23, 2004. The BBC journalist noted that officials monitored Ye's activities as early as June 2004, and that they detained her when she visited Ye for the report. Officials similarly cracked down on Shanghai lawyer Zheng Enchong when he attempted to expose conflicts over forced evictions and shared this information with Human Rights in China, a U.S.-based NGO. Zheng was detained on June 6, 2003, sentenced on October 28, and has reportedly suffered punishment while in prison. Ye was charged on September 15, 2004, with "disturbing public order." According to AFP, the Dongcheng Basic People's Court sentenced him on December 18, 2004 to four years in prison. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court rejected his appeal and affirmed the four-year sentence on February 2, 2005. Ye's son commented in a July 2005 RFA article that authorities held Ye in an unknown location for about a year. Official treatment of Zheng and Ye underscores the politically sensitive nature of property-related disputes in China and the high level of scrutiny the government places on housing rights advocates.

HRW, Amnesty International, and the U.S. Department of State all raised concerns about Ye's case in their 2004 reports on China. The U.S. Department of State reported that the Chinese government "severely restricted freedom of assembly and association and infringed on individuals' rights to privacy." It cited Ye's case, noting that "[t]housands of individuals protesting forced evictions and workplace and health issues were detained during the year," and that "[p]etitioner issues were increasingly considered suspect." A December 8, 2005 report by HRW reflects that this trend has not changed and that official abuse of petitioners is rampant in China. In January 2006, officials placed numerous property rights activists, including Xu Zhengqing and Feng Bingxian, in prison for crimes related to "disturbing public order." Activists such as Xu and Feng made numerous, unsuccessful attempts to negotiate with, or petition to, administrative agencies before officials ultimately detained them under criminal charges.