Human Rights Advocate Chen Beaten, Stages Hunger Strike, Lawyer, Wife Say

Human rights advocate Chen Guangcheng -- who was arrested in China after attempting to bring a class-action lawsuit for alleged human rights abuses associated with the enforcement of the country's one-child-per-family policy -- recently staged a hunger strike to protest being beaten in prison, his lawyers and supporters said on Friday, the Washington Post reports (Fan, Washington Post, 6/23). Amnesty International in a statement Friday said that it believes Chen's "life is in danger and that he is at risk of further torture and ill treatment" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 6/22).

Chen recorded testimony from men and women in communities in and around China's Linyi province who experienced forced abortions and sterilizations. In August 2006, he was sentenced by a court in Shandong to four years and three months in prison for allegedly "willfully damaging property" and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic." An appeals court in Shandong in October 2006 ordered a retrial, but the Intermediate People's Court in China's Shandong Province in January rejected the appeal and upheld the sentence (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/16).

Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, after visiting him on Tuesday told his lawyer Li Jinsong that he was beaten by six or seven inmates at Linyi City prison after refusing to shave his head in compliance with prison rules, the Post reports. Li said, "I personally think that it was not the revenge of prison officials. It's more likely that it's just the misbehavior of the other prison inmates" (Washington Post, 6/23). However, Amnesty said Chen's beating was ordered by prison guards as punishment for filing an appeal of his case, the AP/Chicago Tribune reports. It added that Chen needs the help of his wife or a lawyer to draft the appeal but has not been able to because he is permitted only one 30-minute visit monthly.

Chen refused food and water for 76 hours after the attack, but prison officials told Yuan on Thursday that he had started eating again. The official in charge of the prison could not be reached for comment, the AP/Tribune reports (Chang, AP/Chicago Tribune, 6/22).

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