Former human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi and legal scholar Xu Zhiyong, the longest-serving detainees in the “December 26 Citizens’ Case” that was purged by the authorities because of the Xiamen gathering, were able to meet with their lawyers by video for the first Time recently. Both were severely tortured, and the charges against them were raised from “incitement to subversion” to “subversion,” again raising strong concerns. Ding’s wife said she was heartbroken by her husband’s torture, but it also strengthened her resolve to seek justice.
Ding Jiaxi, who was arrested on Dec. 26, 2019, and Xu Zhiyong, who was caught in flight on Feb. 15, 2020, were both interviewed by defense lawyers for the first time on Jan. 21 this year, the first time news about the two men was learned directly by the outside world.
Ding Xu was tortured and abused
According to several human rights websites, Beijing lawyer Peng Jian was informed during his meeting with Ding Jiaxi via remote video that he had been tortured and abused during his “designated residence surveillance” in Yantai, Shandong Province, including prolonged sleep deprivation, fatigue interrogation, torture to extract confessions, and Food and water restrictions.
The worst was interrogated by five police officers in turn for seven days and seven nights; for half a month, he was given only a quarter of a steamed bun for each meal, and for one week, he was restricted to drinking only 600 milliliters of water per day. More than 10 of Ding’s interrogation statements were made after he was tortured.
Ding also told his lawyer that he had filed a complaint about the torture to the resident prosecutor for the record.
Meanwhile, defense lawyers Liang Xiaojun and Zhang Lei also met with Xu Zhiyong, who has been missing for nearly a year, via video from Linshu County in Linyi City, Shandong Province. The lawyers learned that Xu Zhiyong was also subjected to 10 days of sleep deprivation while under residential surveillance in Beijing, with only four hours of sleep per day for the first five days and two hours per day for the last five days. During his anonymous transfer to the Linshu County Detention Center, he was given only 1 steamed bun per meal, but was allowed to purchase food on his own.
The charge level went up one grade The case was classified as confidential
Previously, the third investigation into Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong’s alleged “incitement” case expired on January 19, and the case was then transferred to the Linshu City Prosecutor’s Office. The three defense lawyers of the two men went back to the Linyi Procuratorate on the 20th to learn about the case, and were told that the Ding-Hsu case had been split into two cases, and that the charge had changed from “inciting subversion” to the more serious “subversion”, and that the case was classified as “confidential”. The case was classified as “confidential” and lawyers were required to sign a confidentiality undertaking. Lawyers are not yet allowed to read the files.
Ding’s wife, Luo Shengchun, has been tweeting about her husband since his arrest on December 26, 2019, and has called on the Chinese authorities to release him unconditionally.
Ding’s Wife: Dehumanizing Torture
Luo Shengchun recently told Voice of America that the dehumanizing torture of Ding Jiaxi by those police officers confirms the information she received in July this year and is more severe than she could have imagined and has cut her heart to the bone.
She said, “I can’t even cry now, my tears are almost dried up. when my friend told me in July, I couldn’t eat or sleep at that time. But now that he said it himself, and it’s more serious than I thought, my heart has really been cutting like a knife these past few days. I can’t sleep for two days and two nights, just these days, I feel like I can’t do anything, then I think about him 7 days and 7 nights, I don’t want to live I will. I do not know how he came through. And I know that Ding Jiaxi is a person who especially needs to sleep. Depriving him of sleep was the cruelest torture for him, which was even greater than whipping him.
I couldn’t imagine why he fainted, but now I can imagine that he was deprived of sleep, water and food, and that he had hypoglycemia and liver problems. I, I can’t accept it anyway.”
Teng Biao: Torture is common in China
The “12-26 Citizens’ Case” is another major political case after the 709 mass arrests of lawyers and human rights activists in 2015, in which many were severely tortured by Chinese authorities, and the level of torture of those involved has continued unabated.
Teng Biao, a former human rights lawyer and legal scholar who is a close friend of Xu Zhiyong, one of the founders of the Citizens’ Movement, and who has also been tortured by the Chinese Communist Party authorities, told VOA that torture is widespread in China, especially against political prisoners.
He said, “Being deprived of sleep, being deprived of food, and not being given water to drink, it is very cruel torture. Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were subjected to this kind of torture, and many people have been subjected to it, but this episode is still rather shocking. Many law enforcement officers in China have the idea that as long as they don’t beat people up, use electric batons, and injure them, it’s not torture. The ones that don’t leave injuries like sleep deprivation and food deprivation are more commonly used.”
Ding’s wife: authorities want heavy sentences to silence
The authorities split the case of Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi because they were worried about the international impact of the case, and changed the charges to the more serious crime of “subversion of state power” to make it clear that they wanted to impose a heavy sentence and imprison them for a long time to eliminate the social impact of their civil movement, said Luo Shengchun, who is in the United States.
He and Xu Zhiyong could have done good things for society, but now they (the authorities) just can’t allow them both,” she said. So they have to go out of their way to find a crime for them to be able to imprison them for a long time. You have to behave to subvert, even if you are a dissident, you are not subverting the country. Isn’t it true that your constitution boasts the freedom of speech and assembly? Why are they subversive when they have a meal?”
Teng Biao also said that the authorities have always been very hostile to the civic movement and human rights activities promoted by people like Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, and it is obvious that they want to sentence them both heavily as a warning to those who still persist in promoting the civic and human rights movements.
He said, “The first thing is that they are very hateful and fearful of the civic and human rights activities promoted by Xu Zhiyong, and they want to use heavy sentences to deter those who are still carrying out civic and human rights activities in the civil society, so as to achieve a terrifying and exemplary effect of killing the chicken and monkey. Also, also by sentencing Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, there is no way for them to start their activities in prison, no way to create influence on civil society.”
Urging the international community to pay more attention
Teng Biao, who has been a consistent promoter of democracy and freedom in China since his arrival in the United States, has been in constant contact with international human rights organizations, the U.S. State Department and Congress to report on the case and call for greater attention after Ding Jiaxi and Xu Zhiyong were arrested in succession. Teng Biao said that Xu and Ding were major influential figures in China’s civil rights movement, and that he and many others would certainly continue to urge attention to their fate.
Luo Shengchun recently tweeted that as 2020 comes to a close, she has begun collecting lists of persecutors from citizens and their families who are being persecuted in China, updating them weekly in a bilingual list that is regularly submitted to the U.S. State Department, the European Union, the United Nations and other agencies with sanctions mechanisms. She said she hopes that these perpetrators will be put on the pillar of shame in history and pay the price for their evil deeds.
Collecting lists of perpetrators and calling for sanctions against them
Luo Shengchun said that although she was deeply distressed by the news of Ding’s torture, it strengthened her will to continue to fight for her husband’s fate regardless of the circumstances.
She said, “I will write to the European Union, the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, and various international human rights agencies, and meet with them if I can, to report to them how Ding Jiaxi, such a kind person, is being tortured by them. I think it is unjustifiable for them to use such torture on him. I want to expose this incident. Then I want to find out the names of the perpetrators of the torture, including other persecutors of human rights defenders. The torture of Ding Jiaxi is the worst I have heard of since 709. I must take those evil doers and make sure they are sanctioned.”
Xu Zhiyong’s girlfriend thanks the outside world for their concern
In addition, Xu Zhiyong’s like-minded girlfriend Li Qiaochu, who was also jailed by authorities for four months last year for being re-sentenced, was released on bail on June 19 and returned from a “small prison” to a “large prison” where she was constantly harassed and summoned in an attempt to silence her.
Li Qiaochu posted a long article online on Jan. 11 this year, “If I’m told to be quiet, I’ll be louder,” detailing her experiences during six supervisory interviews from July 17 to Dec. 9, 2020, and two summonses lasting more than 10 hours on Nov. 26 and Dec. 8.
Lee Chiao-chu tweeted on Jan. 21 to thank the lawyers for their persistence and hard work, and will finally meet Xu Zhiyong, who has not had any information for nearly a year. She also thanked the outside world for their attention to Xu Zhiyong.
The reporter contacted Li Qiaochu a short time ago and she thanked the outside world for their concern for her and Xu Zhiyong, but due to the treacherous environment she was in, she said she was not available for an interview for the time being.
Authorities crack down on “12-26 citizen case”
Since Ding Jiaxi was arrested on Dec. 26, 2019, and Xu Zhiyong was arrested on Feb. 15, 2020, until Jan. 21, they have been secretly transferred to the Linshu County Detention Center in Shandong Province after being placed under residential surveillance, and their lawyers have been prevented from meeting with them repeatedly and have been denied bail pending trial.
Li Qiaochu, who was detained in connection with the December 26 citizenship case, and Chang Weiping, who was detained for the second time last October, have both disclosed that they were subjected to inhumane treatment and torture while under residential surveillance, and that Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi were denied the right to meet, communicate, and have access to their lawyers and relatives during their prolonged detention. It has been suspected that they have been tortured and inhumanely abused. The lawyer’s meeting confirmed the torture.
Xu Zhiyong is an active figure in China’s civil rights movement, having founded the Public League and promoted democracy and the rule of law in China, and later launched the New Citizens Movement in pursuit of true citizenship and a free, just and loving China. He was released from prison after completing his sentence.
Ding Jiaxi, a former aeronautical engineer, worked as a lawyer after 1996 and began to participate in the activities of the Public League. He was one of the main practitioners of the civil movement, and was the main organizer and coordinator of the civil movement with Xu Zhiyong and Zhao Changqing.
On April 17, 2013, Ding Jiaxi was criminally detained on charges of “unlawful assembly,” and on April 18, 2014, Ding Jiaxi and his co-defendants Li Wei, Zhao Changqing, and Zhang Baocheng were charged with “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order,” and Ding Jiaxi was sentenced to three years and six months. He was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months.
In December 2019, Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi participated in a 21-person gathering in Xiamen with lawyers, scholars, and citizens, known as the “Xiamen Gathering. Huang Zhiqiang, a lawyer from Zhejiang Province, and Chang Weiping, a lawyer from Shaanxi Province, were released on bail after 2 and 10 days respectively, and Chang Weiping was placed under residential surveillance again in October last year.
Shandong lawyer Liu Shuqing, Sichuan lawyer Lu Siwei, Hangzhou lawyer Zhuang Daohe and Hebei lawyer Lu Tingge were released after being summoned for 24 to 48 hours. Beijing scholar Wang Jiang Song was asked to make two statements. Since then, several people have continued to be summoned and harassed for long periods of time.
Five people, Hubei lawyer Tang Jingling, Hunan lawyer Wen Donghai, Hubei citizen Liu Jiacai, Hebei citizen Ding Lingjie, and Beijing legal scholar Xu Zhiyong, went into hiding and disappeared, but later returned Home and were interviewed or placed under house arrest again, while Xu Zhiyong was arrested.
Xu Zhiyong’s girlfriend Li Qiaochu and Chen Jiaping, the director of the documentary on Xu Zhiyong, did not attend the meeting, but were implicated and placed under residential surveillance.
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