WP: Chinese Police Detain Wife of Blind Activist: Woman Dropped, Sobbing, Near Home

[DeepModem Mom]

Chinese Police Detain Wife of Rights Activist
Woman Dropped, Sobbing, Near Home
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; Page A19

BEIJING, Nov. 28 -- The wife of a blind legal activist was detained by police for eight hours Tuesday, then dragged out of a police minivan and dropped on the ground at the entrance to her home village, sobbing uncontrollably, lawyers and a relative said.

Yuan Weijing was held a day after her husband was retried in a case closely watched by human rights activists. Attorneys for her husband, Chen Guangcheng, suggested that she had been detained so she could not travel to Beijing to complain about mistreatment of her family by officials.

Chen embarrassed authorities in eastern Shandong province last year by helping villagers prepare a class-action lawsuit against abuses, including forced abortions and sterilizations, meant to implement China's one-child-only policy.

He was later sentenced to more than four years in prison for disrupting traffic and damaging public property, charges his attorneys said were trumped up to punish him for his activism.

Chen appealed and on Monday was given a retrial, which is rare in China. No verdict was announced. While signing court documents Tuesday, he and his wife were permitted to speak to each other briefly, for the first time in eight months, lawyers said. Then Yinan County police presented a summons to Chen's attorneys and took Yuan away....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801409.html

[Trillo]

1. Pollice everywhere seem to share

certain !endearing characteristics. Not(!)