Account of Visiting Five Activists in Chibi Detention Center

On the afternoon of June 19, Lawyer Sui and three other lawyers went to the Chibi Detention Center in Xianning City, Hubei Province, to visit five activists detained in May. The activists were first placed under administrative detention, and then criminal detention, after unfolding a banner which called for the “Realization of the Chinese Constitutional Dream” in Chibi Square. Sui and another lawyer met with two of the detainees, who were charged with “subversion of state power” and “inciting subversion of state power,” respectively. All five suffered beating while in detention, and one was tortured by an electric baton. Sui said in this account that all five activists have since been officially arrested, but he did not know the formal charges against them.