![\"201622d1045e02-bf87-40aa-97d9-6df584aa37c3.jpeg](\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2016\/4\/201622d1045e02-bf87-40aa-97d9-6df584aa37c3.jpeg\")
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Wu Gan stages protest outside Jiangxi High Court, May 19, 2015.<\/span><\/p> Photo courtesy of Boxun<\/span><\/p> Authorities in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian have transferred the subversion case of a prominent free speech activist known as “the Butcher” to the northern port city of Tianjin, his lawyer said on Tuesday.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Wu Gan, 42, was initially detained last year and handed a 10-day administrative sentence, before being placed under criminal detention on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” “libel,”<\/span><\/p> and “incitement to subvert state power.”<\/span><\/p> <\/p> According to his lawyer Wu Kuiming, who is still trying to find out where Wu is being held, the “libel” charge was later dropped and his case transferred to Tianjin.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Wu Kuiming said it is likely that the authorities are now treating him as part of the nationwide crackdown begun on lawyers and rights activists on July 9, 2015 with a raid on the Beijing Fengrui law firm.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “His formal arrest notification number is 24, while [Beijing rights activist] Hu Shigen’s is 21, [Fengrui] boss Zhou Shifeng’s is 22, while [rights lawyer] Li Heping’s is 23,” Wu Kuiming said.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> While police in Wu’s home province of Fujian recommended state prosecutors formally arrest him, and critical articles about him have appeared in China’s tightly-controlled state media, his case may have been transferred in a bid to put further pressure on him, he said.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Not giving in<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “He hasn’t given in, and he has refused to confess to these crimes,” Wu Kuiming said. “If he had cooperated, they would definitely have put him on [state broadcaster] CCTV.”<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “From the authorities’ point of view, the best possible outcome is that they agree to go on CCTV [for a televised confession],” he explained. “The fact that they haven’t done this [to Wu] means they are having trouble getting a confession out of him.”<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Wu’s initial detention came as he staged a performance protest he titled “selling my body to raise funds” in Nanchang city, Jiangxi province.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> He was trying to help finance a legal defense for four men who rights campaigners say were wrongly jailed by a court in Jiangxi’s Leping city in 2000 for robbery, rape, and dismembering a corpse.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> A May 28 article in the state-run news agency Xinhua attacked Wu Gan for his criticism of the police killing of a man at the Qing’an railway station in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang earlier the same month.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Rights activists say Wu likely first drew the ire of the authorities when he posted online his doubts about the credibility of the government’s investigation of the shooting.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Fighter for social justice<\/span><\/p> <\/p> Zhejiang rights lawyer Yan Huafeng said Wu also launched his own investigation into what he believed was a gross miscarriage of justice in the Leping case, collecting video and audio testimony from witnesses and posting them online.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “From what we know of him, we see the Butcher as man who is passionate about social justice, who loves a good fight against injustice,” Yan said.<\/span><\/p> <\/p> “He got himself quite deeply involved in the Qing’an [police shooting] and that’s probably the point at which he fell afoul of someone in authority,” he said.<\/span><\/p> <\/p>