On 7 July 2014, Hangzhou-based human rights defender Mr Lü Gengsong was placed under criminal detention on suspicion of “subversion of state power” following a raid on his home.
The human rights defender is currently being held in Hangzhou City Detention Centre in Zhejiang province.
Lü Gengsong is a freelance writer who has highlighted corruption and illegal evictions on the part of the Chinese authorities, and who has frequently spoken out on behalf of petitioners whose rights have been violated. He is also an active member of the Zhejiang Branch of the China Democracy Party.
On 7 July 2014, at around 8am, the home of Lü Gengsong was reportedly surrounded by agents from the Hangzhou Internal Security Bureau who proceeded to carry out a search of the premises, confiscating a computer and mobile phone. Following this, Lü Gengsong was escorted from the scene and was taken that evening to Hangzhou City Detention Centre. At 2 pm on 8 July 2014, police officials from Caiyuan police station and officers from the Internal Security Bureau arrived at the human rights defender’s home to provide Lü Gengsong’s wife with official documentation regarding his detention on suspicion of “subversion of state power”.
Lü Gengsong was previously arrested in 2007 and sentenced in 2008 to four years’ imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power”. Prior to his arrest, Lü Gengsong had written extensively on political reform, corruption within the Chinese Communist Party, and had also exposed numerous human rights abuses occurring in Zhejiang province. Upon his release in 2011, Lü Gengsong resumed his work in defence of human rights and his participation in the local chapter of the China Democracy Party. He has initiated various online appeals, campaigns and open letters to expose rights violations and demanding political reform. He has also opposed China’s membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Since his release from prison, he has been consistently subjected to house arrest, harassment, interrogation, and short-term detention. His home has been raided by police and the Internal Security Bureau numerous times, and he has reportedly had at least eight computers confiscated by the authorities. The human rights defender’s wife and daughter have also been affected by this harassment.
Front Line Defenders is concerned that the ongoing harassment and detention of Lü Gengsong is connected to his work promoting and protecting human rights in China, particularly his writings and advocacy challenging corruption and illegal evictions on the part of the Chinese authorities.
