Chinese Human Rights Defenders, 2009-7-31 -

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders- July 30, 2009) – CHRD learned today that Xu Zhiyong (许志永), director of the recently-banned legal aid center Open Constitution Initiative (also known as Gongmeng [公盟]), was taken away by the police around 5am on July 29, Beijing local time. His whereabouts are currently unknown.  Efforts to contact him have been unsuccessful as his cell phone has been switched off.

Around 5am on July 29, Xu was taken away from his home in a suburb of Beijing by seven policemen, according to a security guard at Xu’s housing complex.  Around the same time, Zhuang Lu (庄璐), a staff member at Gongmeng, was also seized. It is feared that both Xu and Zhuang have been detained by the police. It is unclear which police division carried out this early morning round-up.

This morning, the State Administration of Taxation held a hearing about its decision to fine Gongmeng 1.42 million RMB for “tax evasion”. Xu did not show up at the hearing. Although the proceedings was supposed to be open to the public, about thirty activists and supporters were barred from attending. Only Peng Jian (彭剑) and Li Xiongbing (黎雄兵), two lawyers advising Gongmeng, were allowed to be present.

In a separate incident, at around 10 o’clock on the morning of July 29, a police officer from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau (PSB) and two members of the Cultural Market Administrative Law Enforcement General Brigade arrived, without any previous announcement, at the office of Beijing’s Yirenping Center (益仁平), an organization that focuses on the rights of hepatitis patients and other health-related discrimination issues. The officials claimed that Yirenping was involved in unauthorized “publishing activities” and then proceeded to inspect the office, photograph its publications and confiscate a hundred copies of its publications, Anti-Discrimination Communications. Yirenping’s lawyers later discovered that one of the “inspectors” did not have a valid official ID authorizing such an inspection.

“This ‘inspection’ of Yirenping’s office, coming on the heels of the raid and closure of Gongmeng, is a clear act of intimidation against yet another independent group in Beijing”, said David Smalls, CHRD’s Research Associate……. (more details from Chinese Human Rights Defenders)

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