2017-05-12
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Rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, who went missing on Nov. 21, 2016 and is believed to have been tortured in custody, in an undated photo.
RFA
The wife of detained Chinese rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong has said she has received an account of his torture during his detention in an unknown location. Jiang, who went missing on Nov. 21 in the central city of Changsha, is now confirmed by police as detained under “residential surveillance in a designated location” on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” He was identified as vulnerable to torture by Amnesty International in January. Speaking from her home in the U.S., Jin Bianling said authorities in neighboring Henan province have also detained Jiang’s father and sister after they arrived in Beijing:
“Today is the 172nd day of Jiang Tianyong’s secret detention. To this day, nobody in our family knows exactly where he is being held. His lawyers aren’t permitted to meet with him.
We have recently learned from a sympathetic official source in Changsha that Jiang Tianyong has been tortured. There is a problem with his feet. They are so swollen that he can’t stand up. He may be crippled for life.
I was extremely concerned and worried when I heard about this. I fear for Jiang Tianyong’s life and his well-being, because I have seen that other lawyers, Xie Yang, Li Chunfu, and Li Heping released recently had been detained and tortured too.
I worry that Jiang Tianyong won’t be able to bear it.
Yesterday [May 11], Jiang Tianyong’s sister went with his father to Beijing to pick up a few items from his brother’s place. But they were stopped by interceptors from Henan shortly after they arrived and taken to a hotel.
They were told it was because the One Belt, One Road forum is about to open in Beijing, so they weren’t being allowed into the city.
They then took Jiang Tianyong’s sister and father back home in their own car, driving through the night. They arrived in Luoshan in Xinyang city, Henan at around 6.00 a.m. [Thursday] morning.
But Jiang Tianyong’s sister and father weren’t allowed home after they arrived in Luoshan. They have been taken to the Nangan police station for interrogation. They haven’t yet been released.
I condemn these actions in the strongest terms.
In particular, I condemn the Hunan authorities’ … cruel and inhumane torture of Jiang Tianyong.
I call on China’s judicial system to carry out an investigation into Jiang Tianyong’s treatment and make his whereabouts and situation publicly known.
At the same time, I call on the Henan police to give me a full and public account of which laws Jiang Tianyong’s father and sister are alleged to have broken.
They were detained when they only went to Beijing to pick up a few things, and we still don’t know where they are or what happened to them.”
