HRIC Action Bulletin: Activist Hu Jia Serving 3 ½-year Jail Sentence (Updated July 14, 2008)

Note: Originally published on February 4, 2008, this Action Bulletin was updated on July 14, 2008.

Activist Hu Jia [胡佳] was detained on December 27, 2007, on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” [煽动颠覆国家政权罪]. He was then held at Beijing Municipal Detention Centre [北京市看守所] and was denied release on bail pending investigation for purportedly being a danger to society, despite the fact that he was in poor health and suffers from a severe liver illness.[1] Hu was denied access to his lawyers for over a month, on alleged grounds that his case involved “state secrets.”[2] Hu’s wife Zeng Jinyan [曾金燕], who gave birth to a daughter in November 2007, was not allowed to leave her apartment or receive visitors for almost two months following her husband’s detention. Even now, Zeng remains under surveillance. This year, Zeng was able to meet with Hu Jia on February 17 at the detention center, on March 18—immediately following Hu’s trial—at the basement of the court building, and on June 5 at the Chaobai Prison in Tianjin.

Hu was indicted on March 7, 2008, and his trial was held on March 18, 2008. Hu’s trial should have been conducted as a public trial because the court had come to the view that Hu’s case did not involve “state secrets.” However, authorities prohibited Hu’s wife and father from attending the hearing on the pretext that “they are the witnesses in Hu’s case.” Although many family members, relatives, friends, and reporters had applied to attend the hearing, only Hu’s mother was allowed to attend. Hu’s lawyers were also not permitted to fully argue their case.

Hu was subsequently convicted on April 3, 2008, by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court of “inciting subversion of state power,” and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. The court also ordered him to be deprived of his political rights for one year following his release from prison.

According to the court, the charges against Hu were allegedly based on his communications with the foreign press and on articles critical of the Communist Party and the human rights situation in China, which were posted to the Internet as the country prepared for the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games on August 8.

Xinhua, China’s official state news agency, reported that the court said that Hu was given a “lenient” sentence because he had confessed his crime and showed remorse. However, his lawyers denied that Hu had made any confession.

Hu was subsequently denied access to his lawyers, which prevented him from appealing the court’s decision before the deadline for the filing of an appeal. On April 14, 2008, the last day to appeal, lawyer Li Fangping made one last attempt to go to the detention center to try to meet Hu regarding the possibility of filing an appeal. Li waited for the whole afternoon and was finally told, “Hu is not in the detention center, because he has been sent for an outside physical checkup to prepare him to be put into jail.” The authorities at the detention center refused to telephone Hu Jia. The detention center authorites also refused to respond to Li’s assertions - that the court decision on Hu Jia was not yet in effect, and that the authorities should not have sent him for the pre-imprisonment physical checkup. The authorities also refused to forward the draft appeal statement prepared by Hu Jia’s lawyers to Hu Jia. The next day, Li went again to the Beijing Detention Center to request a meeting with Hu Jia, but the authorities refused to allow them to meet, ostensibly because the appeal period had lapsed.[3]

Hu Jia was transferred to Beijing Chaobai Prison, located in Tianjin, on May 7, 2008. He is reportedly in poor health and suffers from chronic liver cirrhosis. The authorities have also denied the application for Hu’s medical parole from Hu’s family and lawyer. Hu’s family was allowed to meet with him only once, on June 5, 2008.

Prior to his arrest and conviction, Hu was under house arrest for the greater part of 2006, while Zeng’s movements were restricted and monitored by police. During this time, Hu made a documentary called Prisoner in Freedom City, referring to the name of their apartment complex, Bo Bo Freedom City. Hu and Zeng both blogged about life under surveillance. In September, Hu posted an article he wrote with lawyer Teng Biao on his MSN Spaces blog, about “The Real Situation in Pre-Olympics China”; an English translation is available in the China Rights Forum, No.4 2007 issue.[4]

Hu Jia is a long-time HIV/AIDS activist and an internationally-recognized Chinese rights defender. He has actively fought for rights improvement in China through his timely international reporting of major rights abuses. Hu and Zeng received the “Freedom of Speech Championship Award” from the Visual Artists Guild in May 2008, a 2007 special press freedom award from Reporters Without Borders, and were also nominated for the Sakharov Human Rights Award of the European Parliament. Zeng was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2006.[5]

Human Rights in China urges the international community to press the Chinese authorities to release Hu Jia and other rights defenders. Human Rights in China also calls on the Chinese government to live up to its promises to demonstrate respect for human dignity, which is at the heart of the Olympics movement.



Key facts

Chronology

On January 11, HRIC sent letters to European leaders, urging action on Hu Jia’s behalf. HRIC addressed these letters to the following bodies/individuals:

• the Presidency of the European Union (Smiljana Knez);


• the Council of the European Union (Riina Ruth Kionka, Personal Representative of the Secretary General/High Representative for Human Rights);


• the European Parliament (Hélène Flautre);


• the European Commission (James Moran, Director for Asia; Rolf Timans, Acting Director for Human Rights and Democratisation; Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Commissioner for External Relations);


• and the government of France, which will take the Presidency of the European Union during the Beijing Olympics (Michel Doucin, Ambassador for Human Rights).

HRIC urged these leaders to exercise their leadership by raising Hu Jia’s case with relevant authorities in China and calling for his immediate release. HRIC also recommended that they emphasize China’s responsibilities as host of the Olympic Games, and pursue with the Chinese authorities all available actions for redress of the broader situation of rights defenders in China, who are presently subjected to severe crackdowns and harassment.

HRIC received positive responses and expressions of concern from EU officials and Parliamentarians. In a resolution adopted on January 17, the European Parliament called on the Chinese authorities to release Hu Jia and to respect human rights in the run-up to this year's Olympic Games. On January 23, the European Parliament’s Interparliamentary Delegation to China had its first meeting of the year, and Hu Jia’s case was the main item on the agenda. HRIC will continue to monitor the EU’s actions on Hu Jia.

Additional press work

• "HRIC Statement: HRIC Denounces Conviction of Prominent Activist Hu Jia," April 3, 2008, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/48317;
  
• "HRIC Statement: Politicized Trial of Rights Defender Hu Jia Guts Freedom of Expression in China," March 18, 2008, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/47879;
  
• "HRIC Statement: Drop Politically-Motivated Charges against Hu Jia," March 12, 2008, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/47723;
  
• "HRIC Statement: HRIC Condemns the Formal Arrest of Hu Jia," February 1, 2008, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/47275;
  
• "HRIC Statement: Protest the Detention of Hu Jia," December 28, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/46164;
  
• "HRIC Statement: Human Rights in China condemns attack on Hu Jia," November 12, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/45528;
  
• "Hunger Strike Detentions Continue in Shanghai," February 17, 2006, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/27215;
  
• "Forced Psychiatric Treatment Threatened for AIDS Activist Hu Jia," June 9, 2004, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/9644.
  

• January 23, 2008: the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China issued a call for Hu Jia’s prompt release at its first meeting of the year. Chairman Dirk Sterckx said that he would be writing the Chinese ambassador to the European Union to ask for a full explanation of the reasons for Mr. Hu's arrest and what laws he had broken.[20]


• January 18, 2008: Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese and the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group initiated a campaign to press for the release of three high-profile human rights defenders: Hu Jia, Guo Feixiong (aka Yang Maodong) and Chen Guangcheng.[21]


• January 17, 2008: the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the arrest of Hu Jia, strongly condemning the detention of Hu Jia, demanding his prompt release, and calling upon the Chinese authorities to put an end to the harassment of Chinese human rights defenders in order to demonstrate their commitment to human rights in this Olympic year.[22]


• December 31, 2007: the President of the European Parliament published a statement admonishing the Chinese authorities for their detention of Hu Jia, and urged them to use the 2008 Olympic Games as an opportunity for China to demonstrate that a country hosting the world's most important sports event is committed to internationally-recognized human rights standards, including freedom of expression.[23]

• Stay informed: Familiarize yourself with the situation for human rights defenders in China by visiting HRIC’s website: http://www.hrichina.org.
  
  
  • Visit HRIC’s Olympics Incorporating Responsibility 2008 Campaign to learn more about other detained individuals and the issues on which they spoke out: http://www.ir2008.org.
  
  
  • Subscribe to HRIC press releases and news lists by sending an email to releases-request@lists.hrichina.org.
  
  


• Visit Hu Jia’s and Zeng Jinyan’s blogs, and leave comments in their support!


• Hu Jia’s Blog: http://hujiachina.spaces.live.com/blog (last updated December 27, 2007).


• Zeng Jinyan’s Blog: http://www.zengjinyan.org (last updated July 11, 2008) (Zeng’s old blog can be viewed at http://zengjinyan.spaces.live.com).


• Join online calls for Hu’s release! Facebook: “Free Hu Jia and his family”: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/58833.


• Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Petition: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25197.


• Monitor the progress of the case by following reports in the media and assessments by civil society.


• Write letters or postcards to encourage and show support for Zeng Jinyan: P. R. China, 北京通州区东果园BOBO自由城76号楼5单元542号 邮编：101100.


• Share your suggestions for further action: E-mail us at hrichina@hrichina.org.

//

SOURCES

[1] “Visitors barred from Freedom City 'crime' scene in Beijing,” Agence France-Presse, January 26, 2006, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ieneVYp69VIqRnY4Bk65si4z2tqA.

[2] Xiao Ding, “Beijing Police Reject Hu Jia's Application to Be Released on Bail Pending Investigation” [胡佳取保候审被拒], Radio Free Asia [自由亚洲电台], January 25, 2008, http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/hujia-20080125.html; see also Jerome A. Cohen and Eva Pils, “Hu Jia in China’s Legal Labyrinth”, The Far Eastern Economic Review, May 2008, 43-46, http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/CohenandPils.pdf.

[3] AFP “Hu Jia blocked from appealing sentence, lawyer says”, Taipei Times, April 18, 2008, http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2008/04/18/2003409597 (accessed July 14, 2008).

[4] HRIC translated this article for China Rights Forum No. 4, 2007.

[5] Arianna Huffington, “Zeng Jinyan – The Time 100,” Time (online version), http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/ 0,28804,1595326_1615754_1616169,00.html (accessed July 14, 2008).

[6] Jerome A. Cohen and Eva Pils, “Hu Jia in China’s Legal Labyrinth”, The Far Eastern Economic Review, May 2008, 43-46, http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/CohenandPils.pdf; see also “Zeng Jinyan Regains Right to Communication After Two Months of Blockage; Detained Hu Jia Looks Distressed” [隔绝两月曾金燕获准通讯　谈见胡佳忧心忡忡], Radio Free Asia [自由亚洲电台], February 21, 2008, http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/ceng-20080221.html (accessed July 14, 2008).

[7] Ibid.

[8] “In Brief: Hu Jia Formally Arrested” [快讯：胡佳（胡嘉）被正式逮捕], Chinese Human Rights Defenders [维权网], January 31, 2008, http://crd-net.org/Article/Class18/hujia/200801/20080131213334_7438.html (accessed July 14, 2008).

[9] “Beijing Police Reject Hu Jia's Application to Be Released on Bail Pending Investigation” [胡佳取保候审被拒], Radio Free Asia [自由亚洲电台], January 25, 2008, http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/hujia-20080125.html (accessed July 14, 2008).

[10] Ibid; see also Jerome A. Cohen and Eva Pils, “Hu Jia in China’s Legal Labyrinth”, The Far Eastern Economic Review, May 2008, 43-46, http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/CohenandPils.pdf.

[11] “Visitors Barred from Freedom City 'Crime' Scene in Beijing,” Agence France-Presse, January 26, 2006, http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ieneVYp69VIqRnY4Bk65si4z2tqA (accessed July 14, 2008).

[12] “Hu Jia Allowed to Send Memo To Family” [胡佳首次获准向家人传递便条], Radio Free Asia [自由亚洲电台], January 21, 2008, http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/China_Hu-20080121.html (accessed July 14, 2008).

[13] Li Jingsong, “Application for Releasing on Bail Pending Investigation” [取保候审申请书], China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group [中国维权律师关注组], January 14, 2008, http://www.chrlcg-hk.org/?p=246#more-246 (accessed July 14, 2008).

[14] Jerome A. Cohen and Eva Pils, “Hu Jia in China’s Legal Labyrinth”, The Far Eastern Economic Review, May 2008, 43-46, http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/CohenandPils.pdf; see also Xiao Ding, “Lawyer Barred from Meeting Hu Jia on State Secrets Grounds; Concerns for Guo Feixiong and Gao Zhisheng Continue” [胡佳被以涉密拒律师会见 民间继续关注郭飞雄高智晟], Radio Free Asia [自由亚洲电台], January 4, 2008, http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/hu-jia-20080104.html (accessed July 14, 2008).

[15] Li Jingsong, “Application for Releasing on Bail Pending Investigation” [取保候审申请书], China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group [中国维权律师关注组], January 14, 2008, http://www.chrlcg-hk.org/?p=246#more-246.

[16] Li Jingsong, “Application for Releasing on Bail Pending Investigation” [取保候审申请书], China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group [中国维权律师关注组], January 14, 2008, http://www.chrlcg-hk.org/?p=246#more-246.

[17] “Tens of Police Deployed to Surround Zeng; Details of Hu’s Detention Revealed” [数十警察围困曾金燕 胡佳被拘细节辗转传出], Radio Free Asia [自由亚洲电台], January 2, 2008, http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/hu_zeng-20080102.html (accessed July 14, 2008); see also HRIC Statement: “Protest the Detention of Hu Jia”, December 28, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/46164.

[18] Li Jingsong, “Application for Releasing on Bail Pending Investigation” [取保候审申请书], China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group [中国维权律师关注组], January 14, 2008, http://www.chrlcg-hk.org/?p=246#more-246.

[19] Li Jingsong, “Application for Releasing on Bail Pending Investigation” [取保候审申请书], China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group [中国维权律师关注组], January 14, 2008, http://www.chrlcg-hk.org/?p=246#more-246.

[20] European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China, Press Statement by Dirk Sterckx, MEP, on behalf of the EP Delegation on the case of the imprisoned Chinese dissident Hu Jia, January 23, 2008.

[21] “Joint Statement: Implement Olympic Spirit, Protect Human Rights! Immediately Release Hu Jia, Guo Feixiong, Chen Guangcheng and Other Mainland Human Rights Defenders and Human Rights Lawyers!” Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Diocese and China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, January 18, 2008, http://www.chrlcg-hk.org/?p=248 (accessed July 14, 2008).

[22] European Parliament, “European Parliament Resolution of 17 January 2008 on the arrest of the Chinese Dissident Hu Jia,” Doc. No.: P6_TA(2008)0021, January 17, 2008, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type= TA&reference=P6-TA-2008-0021&language=EN (accessed July 14, 2008).

[23] European Parliament, “European Parliament Motion for a Resolution on the arrest of the Chinese Dissident Hu Jia,” Doc. No.: PE398.259v01-00, B6‑0038/2008, January 15, 2008, Paragraph G, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type =MOTION&reference=B6-2008-0038&language=ET (accessed July 14, 2008).