Tan Zuoren

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Demonstrations for Tan Zuoren in Hong Kong (2010)

Tan Zuoren ( Chinese 谭 作人 ; born May 15, 1954 in Chengdu , Sichuan Province , People's Republic of China ) is an environmental activist, civil rights activist, writer and former editor of the magazine Literati.

Tan conducted an investigation to find out whether poorly built schools were the cause of the deaths of thousands of children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. He also wrote about the Tiananmen Square massacre . However, it was reported that during his investigation, he was arrested, sentenced and detained for five years.

On February 9, 2010, Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years in prison on the grounds of "inciting undermining state power". Tan wanted to find out the truth about why so many schools collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, killing thousands of children. This was reportedly only one of the reasons for his arrest and charge. His lawyers said that the charges against Tan Zuoren were vague and untrue, and that no evidence of his "crime" was presented.

Roseann Rife, Assistant Director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Program , said: “His arrest, the unfair trial and now the guilty verdict are other disturbing examples of the Chinese authorities using imprecise and overarching laws to silence conflicting voices and punish. ”Because of the nature of the charges and the circumstances of the trial, he has been labeled a political prisoner.

Trial 2009

Eleven months after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake that killed thousands of people, the authorities were still unable to provide the exact number of students who had been killed, nor could they give a reason why the school buildings collapsed.

So Tan conducted an independent investigation to find out why schools collapsed and buried so many thousands of students. He made the proposal to set up a data archive, which he called "5.12 Student Archive". His proposal was for parents who had lost their children in the earthquake to set up a database of victims. However, as a result of this effort, Chengdu police ransacked his home and confiscated his DVDs, manuscripts, and documents. Tan had described the poor quality of the schools in Sichuan as tofu buildings . On March 28, 2009, he was arrested on charges of "subversion of state power". Tan Zuoren was officially accused, among other things, of defaming the Chinese Communist Party in email comments about the 1989 Tian'anmen massacre .

On August 12, 2009, the trial of Tan began in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Tan's lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang , said the authorities got their hands on the defense witness list and then harassed and even detained those witnesses, which is a shame for the courts in China. Pooh made it clear that this is the current state of the judicial system in China and believe that they are doing it because they are afraid.

accusation

Activist Tan Zuoren was arrested on March 28, 2009 while investigating the cause of the collapse of several schools in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and charged with subversion by the Chengdu Procuratorate. He was on trial on August 12th. The indictment against Tan was provided to the China Digital Times by someone who chose to remain anonymous.

The indictment mentioned, among other things, that an investigation conducted under the law found the defendant Tan Zuoren to be dissatisfied with the methods and judgment of the Party's Central Committee regarding the "June 4th Incident" and for many years in activities for the “4th June “participated. On May 27, 2007, Tan Zuoren wrote an article entitled "1989: A Witness of the Last Beauty: The Diary of an Eyewitness in Tian'anmen Square" and posted it on The Fire of Liberty website and other websites outside mainland China . The main focus of the article was that the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party had misrepresented its handling of the "June 4th Incident".

The indictment also mentioned that Wang Dan , a "hostile element" outside of China, emailed Tan shortly after this article was published, and provided him with "4. June "should have sent.

defense

The defense plea by Tan’s lawyers at his hearing on August 12th is circulating on the internet, although it is often quickly deleted. Still, many continue to discuss it, including Tan's lawyer Xia Lin. China Digital Times thanks an anonymous translator for providing the full translation.

Tan Zuoren's attorneys Xia Lin and Pu Zhiqiang did some investigations and interviews, and spoke to their client. Afterwards, in their defense statement, they told the court that Tan Zuoren's behavior and speech did not indicate that he had committed the crime as described in the indictment. He only exercised his constitutional right.

In their plea, Tan's lawyers mentioned, among other things, that everyone knows that the character of the government of the People's Republic of China is a “democratic dictatorship of the People's Republic”. This means that the vast majority of the population has state power through democratic means. So overturning state power would mean intending to use anti-democratic methods to destroy the system of people's democracy. However, if one reads through all of Tan Zuoren's writings, it can be determined that he is a person who is passionate about love for the people, who supports democracy, and who opposes autocracy. Tan Zuoren is a pioneer of people's democracy and its protector, and not someone who would overthrow and destroy it. To want to condemn him for "inciting to overthrow state power" contradicts the basic character of the state political regime of the People's Republic of China. The facts described above are sufficient to prove that none of the prosecution's allegations that Tan Zuoren's speeches and actions constitute a crime as set out in Article 151 (inciting the overthrow of state power) of the Criminal Code of the People's Republic of China, is described. The charges that Mr. Tan Zuoren committed this crime failed for lack of evidence. His lawyers demanded that the judges' panel - under the Criminal Procedure Act of the People's Republic of China - find Tan Zuoren innocent because the charges cannot be proven under the law and must therefore be clearly denied.

Testimony

Contemporary artist Ai Weiwei traveled to Chengdu to testify in court. He said that he and 10 other volunteers, including reporters, were woken up at 3:00 a.m. on August 12 by police officers who broke into their hotel rooms. He was beaten and prevented from leaving the room until the trial was over. Ai said, “If you act this way with Witnesses, how should you deal with local people, people who have no voice?” Ai told Reuters at the airport when he was about to return to Beijing, “They were like bandits in a movie, they could do what they wanted, it was very scary. ”Ai had mentioned that five of the alleged witnesses who had compiled a list of the dead children had been held by the police.

The time-Online reported that Ai Weiwei criticized the verdict against Tan sharply: "This case shows that the regime intensified the persecution of freedom of expression." What Tan Zuoren had said, was covered by the right to freedom of expression, so Ai Weiwei. "This case reveals that dictatorship and autocracy are a deadly disease under the terms of the Communist Party leadership." Zeit also reported that well-known Chinese civil rights attorney Teng Biao said the charges against Tan Zuoren were "without legal basis." . Teng Biao had said to dpa: “What he did came from an outstanding civic spirit. He exposed and published the truth behind the Sichuan earthquake. He deserves praise and no charge. "

Tan’s supporters and Amnesty International mentioned that Tan was jailed for planning to publish an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake that killed over 80,000 people.

Tan's trial began a week after earthquake activist Huang Qi was tried in Chengdu for allegedly disclosing state secrets. Huang was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison on November 23, 2009 for helping parents of the children who were killed. Attorney Pu Zhiqiang said that Tan's report on the earthquake showed that all of his investigations were objective and scientific.

Hong Kong's NowTV TV channel aired footage of Chengdu police raiding the luggage and hotel rooms of two of his journalists. Journalists were not allowed to leave the hotel for seven hours while police said they were looking for drugs. Footage of security forces harshly treating reporters was shown on national television news.

“I was very shocked by it. I have reported on many sensitive lawsuits, and I have never seen a situation like this where reporters are trapped in their hotel and prevented from covering anything, ”said Bruce Lui, a Hong Kong cable TV reporter who was also prevented from doing so had been to report on the process.

Appointment 2010

Shortly after the verdict was pronounced in February 2010, Tan appealed. However, on April 19, the Sichuan Supreme Court rejected his request for an open hearing. On April 20, Tan's attorneys Pu Zhiqiang and Xia Lin filed a second motion for an open hearing of Tan's appeal, along with a defense statement. On June 6th, the Supreme Court contacted Mr. Pu to inform him that a judgment had already been made and that it would be announced on June 9th.

On June 9th, 2010, the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court denied Tan's appeal. The court upheld the sentence of five years in prison in just ten minutes. He was also denied all political rights for three years. "The entire negotiation and appeal process is grossly unfair and politically motivated," said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International's deputy director for Asia-Pacific.

Under Article 187 of China's Criminal Procedure Law, courts of second instance are not required to open a court hearing to hear an appeal if the judge believes "the criminal facts are clear." rarely granted.

Release 2014

Tan Zuoren was released on March 27, 2014 “on some sort of probationary period. He has no right to open his mouth, ”said Ai. “He's such a good man, extremely strong-willed and very determined. He paid his price for the society he wants to help, ”said Ai. "He should know that a lot of people support him."

Pu, the prominent Beijing lawyer who represented Tan at his 2009 trial, said activist Tan can still be monitored and restricted, especially on politically sensitive days. "The country owes him five years," Pooh told AFP. “First of all, it was an illegal conviction. Second, given his circumstances, his sentence was far too long. The maximum sentence is five years, and that's what the court gave him. Third, he served the entire sentence, not a day less. "

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cui Weiping, Cui Weiping (崔卫平): Self-initiated and Idealistic Thinking and Action , China Digital Times, April 9, 2009, accessed on January 31, 2017
  2. ^ Writer Tan Zuoren sentence , Pen America, March 11, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  3. ^ Gillian Wong, China sentences earthquake activist to 5 years in prison , Associated Press, boston.com, February 10, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  4. ↑ URGENT ACTION IMMEDIATE TORTURE, Tan Zuoren , Amnesty International, April 2, 2009, accessed January 31, 2017
  5. ↑ a b c d Activist Tells the Truth About Dead Children - 5 Years Imprisonment , Zeit Online, February 9, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  6. ↑ a b c d e Xiao Xuehui, Tan Zuoren's Defense Statement , China Digital Times, August 17, 2009, accessed January 31, 2017
  7. ↑ China: Free human rights activist jailed after unfair trial ( Memento February 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Amnesty International, February 9, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  8. ↑ Political Prisoner Database: Tan Zuoren ( Memento of November 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), Congressional-Executive Commission on China, November 3, 2010, accessed on January 31, 2017
  9. ^ Sophie Richardson, Statement of Sophie Richardson, Asia Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch , testimony given before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, August 3, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  10. ↑ a b A year after the Sichuan quake demanding to know the names of dead students can mean prison , AsiaNews.it, April 2, 2009, accessed January 31, 2017
  11. ↑ Sky Canaves, China Sentences Earthquake Activist , The Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  12. ↑ China locks up civil rights activists again, activist Tan Zuoren , Stern, February 9, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  13. ↑ 豆腐渣工程 罪魁 逍遙法外 譚 作人 追查 反 被 以 言 入 罪 (Chinese), February 10, 2010. Accessed January 31, 2017
  14. ↑ a b Till Fänders, Five years imprisonment for the search for the truth , Frankfurter Allgemeine, September 2, 2010, accessed on January 31, 2017
  15. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Lucy Hornby, Witnesses held as China quake activist trial starts , Reuters, August 12, 2009, accessed January 31, 2017
  16. ↑ Profile: Tan Zuoren , BBC News, February 9, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  17. ↑ Kathrin Hille, China cracks down on activists , The Financial Times, August 12, 2009, accessed January 31, 2017
  18. ↑ a b c d Sophie Beach, Indictment Against Activist Tan Zuoren , China Digital Times, August 4, 2009, accessed January 31, 2017
  19. ↑ Tania Branigan, Leading Chinese artist Ai Weiwei claims police attacked him , The Guardian, Status of Chinese People, August 10, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  20. ↑ Chengdu Courts Hold Trials of Earthquake Activists , Congressional-Executive Commission on China, November 6, 2009, accessed January 31, 2017
  21. ↑ Diana Lee and agencies, Fury at jail for quake activist ( Memento June 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), The Standard, February 10, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  22. ↑ a b c d Jailed China earthquake activist's appeal declined , Probe International, Amnesty International and Chinese Human Rights Defenders, June 9, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  23. ↑ Gu Yunyin, Sichuan Quake Rights Activist Sentenced to Five Years , Epoch Times, February 11, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  24. ↑ China: Civil Rights Activist Condemned, Truth Becomes Subversion , Süddeutsche Zeitung, May 17, 2010, accessed on January 31, 2017
  25. ↑ Quake activist loses appeal , rthk.hk, June 9, 2010, accessed January 31, 2017
  26. ↑ People's Republic of China: civil rights activist Tan Zuoren free , International Society for Human Rights (ISHR), March 2014, accessed on January 31, 2017
  27. ↑ a b c Chinese earthquake activist Tan Zuoren released after five-year prison term , The Guardian, Agence France-Presse, March 27, 2014, accessed January 31, 2017
  28. ↑ Tan Zuoren verdict , Chengdu City Intermediate Court, China News Digest, accessed January 31, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Tan Zuoren
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 谭 作人 (Chinese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese environmental activist and civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Cheng you