Shanghai Rights Activists Beaten, Detained, and Placed under House Arrest

[Crackdown on Shanghai Rights activists] According to Shen Peilan (沈佩兰), Shanghai petitioner and rights defender, Shanghai rights activist Feng Zhenghu (冯正虎) has been under house arrest for more than 20 days, and is currently sick and out of food. Shen said that on March 16, 2012, 28 Shanghai petitioners attempted to visit Feng Zhenghu at his home but were stopped by policemen, security guards, and others. Feng Zhenghu was summoned at 8:00am to the Wujiaochang police substation, questioned and released at 4:00pm the same day. Additionally, Shanghai petitioner Zhang Xiongming (张雄明) was detained in Beijing where he attempted to file his petitioning materials. He was then taken back to Shanghai and ordered to serve 7 days of administrative detention for “disturbing public order at Beijing Tiananmen”, but the detention center twice refused to accept him because of his high blood pressure. Another Shanghai petitioner Jiang Li (江莉) was beaten and detained by local petition officers at Shanghai Hongqiao railway station and then put into a black jail where she was also beaten and held with another petitioner Xin Juzhen (忻菊珍).