Niu Tengyu, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison
Twenty months after his arrest, Niu Tengyu, the officially identified “main culprit” in the “vulgar Wiki case” that allegedly leaked Xi Jinping’s daughter’s personal information, finally met with his mother and reiterated that he had been wrongly accused and would persist in his appeal. The lawyer for the case said he would try his best to assist in the complaint process.
I don’t want to worry my mother
Niu Tengyu, the 22-year-old officially identified “main culprit” in the “Vulgar Wiki” case, met his mother on Monday at Maoming City Detention Center No. 1 in Guangdong Province, the first time his mother and son have seen each other since his arrest in August 2019.
The meeting lasted half an hour and was closely monitored throughout, said Niu Tengyu’s mother, who declined to be named for security reasons, to the station Wednesday.
“He is in very good spirits, but his face is pale, no blood at all. When he was at home, his face was white and red, and he was healthy and lively. This time he did not have a mental breakdown (signs), and kept comforting me, thinking very clearly.”
She also added that Niu Tengyu probably did not want to upset his mother and did not want to mention the previous torture and did not want her to see the finger that had been disabled as a result. She observed that Niu Tengyu was completely unable to move at least two of his right fingers.
A recent complaint submitted by Bao Longjun, one of Niu Tengyu’s second trial defense lawyers, shows that in October 2019, Niu Tengyu was illegally detained by Guangdong police for about 45 days, during which he was beaten several times, resulting in injuries to his right hand and nerve necrosis in two fingers, from which he still has not recovered.
Lawyer: Big problems with trial procedures
In May 2019, the personal information of Xi Jinping’s daughter Xi Mingze and brother-in-law Deng Jiagui was exposed on an offshore website, and the task force subsequently arrested 24 technicians and members of the domestic “Vulgar Wiki” website that reproduced the information. Soon after, Niu Tengyu, the site’s administrator, was charged with being the main culprit and sentenced in the first instance last year to 14 years in prison for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” and “illegal business operation. On April 23, the court of second instance upheld the first trial verdict in the absence of his lawyer and family.
Our Cantonese department previously quoted second trial defense lawyer Bao Longjun as saying that the case should have been heard in public when there were many doubts, and that the court of second trial handed down the second trial verdict without responding to the defense’s application and without asking the defense’s opinion, which clearly violated the legal procedure.
In another interview with our reporter on Wednesday, Bao Longjun said that technically, the proxy relationship between Niu Tengyu’s mother and him ended after the second trial verdict, but Niu’s mother wanted him to continue to assist in the appeals process of the case. Bao Longjun noted that this requires Niu Tengyu’s own signature on the power of attorney to have legal effect, but when the mother and son met the other day, authorities appeared to have made advance preparations to block the lawyer’s continued involvement.
“During this meeting, it was clear that the detention center was under pressure from higher-ups, who forbade Niu Tengyu to submit any written documents and signatures to his mother. It’s still slightly difficult for us to intervene when it’s not allowed.”
Our Cantonese department also previously quoted Niu Tengyu’s mother as saying that her son himself had written a complaint and was still arguing his case. But given that he mentioned to his mother that some of the materials he had previously written had been intercepted by authorities, it remains doubtful that he will succeed in his complaint.
On August 22, 2019, plainclothes police in Guangdong raided Niu Tengyu’s home and arrested him. (Courtesy of Niu Tengyu’s friends)
The case is suspected of involving “power and money deals”
In July 2019, a number of members of Vulgar Wiki identified Gu Yang Yang as the actual controller of the website, but some questioned that his family had bribed the authorities to release him after his arrest through a “power and money deal. Gu’s father is rumored to be a Shanghai Education Bureau executive, and his mother is a top employee of Alibaba’s Ant Group.
Niu Tengyu’s mother confirmed to reporters Wednesday that people associated with the case widely questioned that Gu Yang Yang was the one involved, but that the Gu family was not ultimately implicated because of their power and influence.
“The mother of Gu Yang Yang is a person who can call the shots in Shanghai. According to Gu Yang Yang’s own words, his mother’s hands and eyes, go out for a meal, everyone’s license plates are ‘0001’ and so on, are very powerful people, ordinary people simply can not contact them.”
At the end of March this year, shortly before the verdict of the second trial in this case, Niu Tengyu’s mother had met with a number of human rights officials from the embassies of the United States, Britain and France in Beijing to brief them on the details of the case. She told the station on Wednesday that many diplomats are still in close communication with her and want to provide the necessary assistance.
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