(Geneva) China “arbitrarily” detains anti-corruption activist Zhang Baocheng, arrested in 2019 for “promoting terrorism”, concluded the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, calling for his release.
Posted at 12:56 p.m.
Updated at 12:58 p.m.
In an opinion dating from November, but made public by one of the complainants on Monday, this group – whose opinions are not binding – underlines the “arbitrary” detention of this human rights defender.
The Working Group, composed of five experts, calls on the Chinese authorities to release him “immediately”, to grant him compensation and to investigate the circumstances leading to his detention.
Beijing has intensified the repressive measures from which activists and NGOs have suffered since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
The UN Working Group points out that in its 30 years of existence, it has found that China has violated its international rights obligations in more than 1,000 cases, worrying that this “indicates a systemic problem of arbitrary detention”.
Zhang Baocheng, 63, was part of an informal network of activists demanding, in particular during public demonstrations, the transparency of the assets of political personnel. He was sentenced in 2014 to two years in prison for his participation in the activities of this group.
He was arrested five years later on suspicion of “seeking contention and stirring up trouble, promoting terrorism and extremism and inciting terrorist activities” and is serving a sentence three and a half years of deprivation of liberty in Beijing.
These charges are, according to the Working Group, “so vague and broad that they could be used to deprive individuals of their liberty without a specific legal basis”.
UN experts believe there was no information to link Mr. Zhang to specific violent or criminal acts and note that the main evidence brought by the prosecution during the trial are tweets criticizing the treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Western studies accuse Beijing of having interned in “camps” in this region of northwestern China at least a million people, mostly Uyghurs, of carrying out “forced” sterilizations and abortions or of imposing forced labor measures.
China rejects these accusations and evokes “vocational training centers” intended to distance the inhabitants of Xinjiang from religious extremism.
For the UN experts, there was no reason to deprive Mr. Zhang of his liberty, since he was simply exercising his right to freedom of expression and association. They also believe that his trial did not meet international standards for the independence of the judiciary and fair trial.
They say they are concerned about the conditions of his detention “in an overcrowded prison, where the lights remain on all day and where he suffers from poor food and inhumane physical inspections”.
The Working Group reported that it did not rely on information provided by the Chinese government in this case, as the authorities had exceeded the deadline for submission by several months.
The NGO UN Watch, in Geneva, declared on Monday to be one of the plaintiffs in this case, alongside the NGO Citizen Power Initiatives for China, which has its headquarters in Washington.
“We call on the Chinese authorities to respect the UN decision and immediately release Mr. Zhang,” said UN Watch official Hillel Neuer.