Zheng Enchong (Photo courtesy of ChinaAid)
China (MNN) ― China's Public Secruity Bureau (PSB) officers have tortured yet another Christian human rights attorney. Zheng Enchong was beaten, stripped, and burned with cigarettes on June 17, China Aid Association reports.
Four officers from Zhabei District branch of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau had summoned him. Although they did not actually interrogate Zheng during the torture, authorities compiled a written record of the interrogation anyway.
They wanted Zheng to sign the record, but he refused. Instead, he wrote a statement on the record describing his treatment by the PSB and comparing it to the government's treatment of Falun Gong practitioners. He plans to file a complaint with the central government.
The government has been harassing Zheng ever since he filed an important legal case in 2003, arguing that government officials conspired with Zhou Zhengyi, "the richest man in Shanghai," to illegally confiscate homes for demolition.
Officials have summoned Zheng almost 20 times, and they have searched his house twice in the last two and a half months. He has difficulty walking after suffering four severe beatings by the authorities.
Zheng already served three years in prison for "illegally providing secrets to overseas entities" after filing the confiscation case. This charge related to an allegation that Zheng faxed two documents regarding workers' protests to the non-profit organization Human Rights in China.
"As an internationally well-known Christian human rights lawyer, Attorney Zheng has always defended the poor and vulnerable," said Bob Fu, president of ChinaAid and a friend of Mr. Zheng and his family. "The repeated harassment and torture against such a conscientious rights defender demonstrates the Shanghai authorities' total disregard to citizens' basic human rights. We encourage the international community to continue to press the Chinese authorities to stop these hideous acts and to hold the abusers accountable."
Contact the Chinese Ambassador to the United States to urge respect for human rights and human treatment for Zheng Enchong:
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong
