By Gudrun Schultz
SHANDONG, China, November 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One day after the retrial of blind Chinese human right’s advocate Chen Guangcheng concluded without an immediate verdict, his wife was taken for questioning by police in Shandong Province, the Associated Press reported earlier today.
Yuan told the AP she was approached by six or seven policemen as soon as she left a court in Yinan County where she was signing documents.
“They said they wanted to talk to me about some matters, but refused to say what they were,” Yuan said in a telephone interview from the courthouse Tuesday, after the incident. “This is a serious trampling of Chinese law.”
Chen’s defense lawyer, Li Jinsong, said Yuan was taken away by police on Tuesday..
“Seven or eight plainclothes policemen came and took her away,” Li said. “They showed me the police summons.”
This is the second time Yuan Weijing has been taken for questioning by police in the past two months. According to reports she has endured beatings, harassment and constant observation since her husband was arrested.
Chen was targeted by police officials after he exposed a campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations against villagers in the Linyi region, in a brutal enforcement of the country’s one-child policy.
According to reports by family and supporters, Chen, Yuan and several close relatives have been beaten, harassed and placed under house arrest by local officials in retaliation for Chen’s human rights work.
In August Chen was convicted on manufactured charges of damaging property and disrupting traffic, and sentenced to over four years in prison. (His lawyer was charged with stealing a wallet, but that case never made it to court.)
An appeals court in Shandong province overturned the ruling against Chen earlier this month, on the grounds of insufficient evidence, sending the case back to the Yinan Court for retrial.
See coverage from the International Herald Tribune:
https://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/28/asia/AS_GEN_China_Blind_Activist.php
See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:
Wife of Chinese Forced Abortion Opponent Hauled in for 9 Hours of Questioning
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/oct/06100501.html
Chinese Appeals Court Overturns Ruling Against Forced-Abortion Opponent Chen
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/nov/06110201.html
Blind Chinese Anti-Forced Abortion Activist Sentenced to Over Four Years in Prison
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06082403.html