Shanghai Rights Defenders Taken by Police during Protest of Shen Yong’s Death

Sources told Human Rights in China that on October 28, Shanghai police took away nearly 100 protestors who were seeking information on the cause of activist Shen Yong’s (沈勇) death.

Shen, 54, became active in rights defense after his home was forcibly demolished. According to his son, Shen Yaming (沈亚明), in the morning of October 24, he was handcuffed, beaten, and taken from his home by police. Two hours later, he was barely breathing when the police returned him home, and died before the ambulance arrived.

HRIC’s sources said that on the morning of October 28, approximately 600 rights defenders gathered outside the Pudong District Public Security Bureau in Shanghai to demand an explanation of Shen’s death. Those taken into custody were detained at at least three different locations: a black jail on Fucun road, the Dongming District police sub-station in Pudong, and the Yuanshen Sports Center. Later that evening, most of the protestors were released, but eight individuals still remain in detention.

That same afternoon, some 200 Shanghai rights defenders accompanied Kong Lingzhen (孔令珍), an eyewitness, to report to the authorities that Kong saw bruises on Shen’s body. When they arrived at the Party School of the Changning District Party Committee, located at 888 Jiangsu Road, some 30 thugs dressed in black rushed out of the school and knocked Kong, 63  and disabled, to the ground and dragged Kong inside. Kong was later taken to a police substation.