Appeal status: Active Appeal started: December 2007
Bu Dongwei, a Falun Gong practitioner, is serving two and a half years of “Re-education Through Labour” (RTL) for exercising his right of freedom of religion. He is being held at the Tuanhe facility in Beijing where he does packaging work.
Bu Dongwei was arrested in May 2006 by seven police officers. His family did not know what had happened to him until three months after his arrest. He was assigned to RTL for “resisting the implementation of national laws” and “disturbing public order” on the basis of a verbal confession and 80 copies of Falun Gong literature that the police say they found in his home. He has not been brought before a court, and the authorities claim that he decided not to appeal against his imprisonment.
In August 2000 Bu Dongwei was assigned to 10 months’ RTL for his religious beliefs. He said he was beaten, deprived of sleep and made to sit in a small chair all day to force him to renounce his beliefs.
Tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been arbitrarily detained in China since 1999 when the organization was banned. Alleged organizers or leaders have been sentenced to prison terms and others have been held in psychiatric hospitals.
RTL is a system of administrative detention imposed by the police without charge, trial or judicial review and in violation of international fair trial standards. Recent efforts to abolish the system appear to have stalled within China’s legislature. Beijing city authorities have extended the use of RTL as a pretext to “clean up” the city in the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Please write, calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Bu Dongwei as a prisoner of conscience. Pending his release, urge the authorities to allow regular visits by his family, access to a lawyer and medical treatment. Ask for a guarantee that he is not subjected to torture or other ill-treatment during his detention. Please also call for the abolition of the RTL system.
Send appeals to: Wen Jiabao Guojia Zongli, Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China, The State Council General Office, 2 Fuyoujie, Xichengqu, Beijingshi 100017, People’s Republic of China
Fax: +86 10 6596 1109 (c/o Minister of Foreign Affair)
Email: gazette@mail.gov.cn
Salutation: Your Excellency
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