Chinese blind activist lawyer released from prison

[September 09, 2010]  DONGSHIGU VILLAGE, China (AP) -- A blind, self-taught activist lawyer who documented forced abortions and other abuses was released from a Chinese prison Thursday and promptly confined in his rural village with limited access to communication, a relative said.

Chen Guangcheng, 39, is a charismatic, inspirational figure for civil liberties lawyers who have fought to enforce the rights that are enshrined in China's Constitution but often breached by the authoritarian government and police. Chen was imprisoned in 2006, marking the start of a government crackdown on activist attorneys.

Chen was escorted to his village Thursday morning as family members were preparing to leave to meet him at the Linyi city prison, relative Yin Dongjiang said. The family has been under heavy surveillance in recent days and authorities cut off phone service for several relatives, he said.

"There are a lot of people in the village right now and the family isn't allowed to leave their home," said Yin, whose sister is married to Chen's older brother.

Lawyer Teng Biao said he had a brief conversation with Chen after getting through to his wife's cell phone after multiple attempts.

"He told me that he was at home but did not have personal freedom. There were eight or nine people outside his home and many others at intersections and entrances to his village," Teng said.

Five men in plain clothes blocked the road into Chen's village with a van and six more came running after Associated Press journalists who tried to enter the community. After a brief scuffle with the journalists, the men jumped into their van and chased the journalists' car at high speed as they left the area.

Chen also told his lawyer he was in poor health and suffered from chronic diarrhea after frequent bouts of food poisoning in prison. He hoped to be able to get medical treatment but hadn't received a response from the government, Teng said. Chen also reported being beaten by a fellow inmate in 2007.

Repeated calls to the cell phones of Chen's wife and brother were met with busy signals. It was not clear how long the apparent communication restrictions would last. Authorities installed six surveillance cameras in the village last week to help them monitor Chen, Yin said.

A man surnamed Li in the propaganda department of the Yinan County Communist Party Committee, which oversees Dongshigu village, denied that the cameras were targeting Chen and said they had been installed in several villages as part of a safety campaign.

"Soft detention" is a common tactic used by the Chinese government to intimidate activists, with some essentially put under house arrest for years.

"For some Chinese activists, the end of a prison term is just the beginning of a lifelong sentence of police surveillance and harassment," Sophie Richardson, acting Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. "The Chinese government has a chance to demonstrate real respect for the rule of law by ending its persecution of Chen and his family."

Blinded by a fever in infancy, Chen studied acupressure, one of the few occupations available to the blind in China. But he developed an interest in law and eventually began fighting for disabled farmers in his home village, forcing the government to follow the law and waive their tax payments.

He expanded his activism after hearing complaints from people living in nearby villages that family planning officials were forcing women to have late-term abortions and sterilizations to enforce the government's one-child policy.

Although such practices are illegal, local officials sometimes resort to drastic measures to meet birth limits set by the government -- and Beijing usually ignores the abuse. Chen's careful documentation enraged Linyi officials, who began a harassment campaign.

He was accused of instigating an attack on government offices and organizing a group of people to disrupt traffic, charges his supporters say were fabricated. Police detained three of his lawyers the night before his trial, barred another from examining evidence, while a fifth was beaten by unidentified men.

[Associated Press; By ISOLDA MORILLO]

Associated Press writer Anita Chang in Beijing contributed to this story.

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