Rights group says China arrests quake critic
Chinese police have arrested a human rights advocate in the country's southwest for "illegal possession of state secrets" after he offered help to parents of children killed in the region's massive earthquake, a rights group said.
China says defence budget to riseHuang Qi was detained in quake-hit Sichuan province on June 10, and on Friday police told his family of his formal arrest on the state secrets charge, the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement emailed late that day.
The claim could not be immediately verified. Police in the Wuhou area of Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu, where Huang was reportedly arrested, said on Saturday they had no knowledge of the case.
China is readying to hold the Beijing Olympic Games in August, and Communist Party authorities have demanded sweeping steps to stifle protests and dissent ahead of the event.
"Huang is still denied access to legal counsel and police did not notify his lawyers of his formal arrest," the group said.
Rights activists and Huang's friends have said that his detention was apparently triggered by his attempts to help families whose children died when schools collapsed in Sichuan's May 12 earthquake. Many parents said the schools were shoddily built because of corruption and lax oversight.
The 7.9 magnitude quake killed about 70,000 people, with thousands still counted as missing and mostly likely dead.
Huang has run his own Tianwang Human Rights Centre and a website (www.64tianwang.com) critical of the Communist Party's restrictions on political rights.
He was previously convicted in 2003 of "inciting subversion of state power," a charge often levelled against dissidents, and was released from jail in 2005, the human rights group said.
(Reporting by Chris Buckley)
- 1 Banks may avoid worst of household debt pain
- 2 FAA proposes 3.8 million fine against American
- 3 Swaps spreads highlight credit stresses
- 4 Slower economy saps climate action
- 5 Besley says fighting inflation tough task
- 6 Poll shows leader swap would not save Labour
- 7 Weak sterling may not curb recession
|
- 1 Glasgow loss deals blow to Labour
- 2 153 killed in Madrid airport plane crash
- 3 Saudi's economic cities under pressure to deliver
- 4 Magnitude 4.5 earthquake shakes eastern Japan
- 5 Resilient storm Fay could hit Florida a third time
- 6 Speculation rife on U.S. VP running mates
- 7 France's Sarkozy in Afghanistan after troop deaths
|
|
