Support Yang Jianli's Hunger Strike Declaration!

DemocracyNews

Chinese pro-democracy advocate and World Movement's participant, Dr. Yang Jianli has been illegally imprisoned in Beijing for 22 months. Dr. Yang Jianli's wife, Christina Fu, is collecting signatures for a petition to build solidarity for Dr. Yang and calling for the Chinese government to end his illegally prolonged detention. The Chinese National People's Congress is currently in session in Beijing until March 15, and Ms. Fu is planning to submit this petition to the Chinese government within two days.

Please find below the text of the petition that Ms. Fu has sent to the World Movement Secretariat, and e-mail your name and affiliation to info @ yangjianli.com as soon as possible.

For information about Dr. Yang and his case, please see our earlier alerts at www.wmd.org/alert/june2602.html.

World Movement for Democracy
c/o National Endowment for Democracy
1101 15th Street, NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20005-5000
Fax: 202-293-0755
E-Mail: world@ned.org
Web: www.wmd.org

*******************************
Petition Regarding the Illegally Prolonged Detention of Dr. Yang Jianli

To the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress:

In June 2003, the Judicial and Internal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the NPC, resolved to put an end to the "chronic disease" of illegally prolonged detention. Accordingly, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Supreme People's Court, and the Ministry of Public Security undertook last year to resolve all outstanding cases of illegally prolonged detention and adopted measures designed to prevent new cases from occurring. We applaud these efforts as being significant steps on the path to rule of law and the respect and protection of human rights. However, there is one case of illegally prolonged detention that has not yet been resolved, which we now respectfully draw to your attention.

Dr. Yang Jianli, a Chinese citizen and U.S permanent resident, was tried in a three-hour closed trial in the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court on August 4, 2003 for illegal entry into China and espionage for Taiwan. He has remained in detention since he was first taken into custody on April 26, 2002, and a verdict has yet to be announced in his case. As you are undoubtedly aware, in June 2003, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Dr. Yang was being arbitrarily detained. Yet, Dr. Yang remains in detention without a decision as to his guilt or innocence.

According to Article 168, section 1, of the Criminal Procedure Law, a court has, at maximum, two and one half months from the date it accepts a case to announce a judgment in the case. The exceptions to the two-and-one-half-months requirement set forth in sections 2 and 3 of Article 168 have no bearing on Dr. Yang's current detention status. Since there is no legal basis for Dr. Yang's current detention, he is being held in illegally prolonged detention.

In accordance with Article 41 of the Constitution, which provides that citizens of the P.R.C. have the right to make suggestions and expose violations of the law, we respectfully request that the Standing Committee exercise its powers under Article 71 of the Constitution and appoint a special investigative committee to conduct an independent and impartial investigation regarding the reasons behind Dr. Yang's ongoing illegally prolonged detention.

Furthermore, if our interpretation is erroneous, and Article 168, section 1, of the Criminal Procedure Law somehow authorizes courts to pronounce a judgment and detain a defendant for a time period exceeding two and a half months, we respectfully request the Standing Committee to exercise its authority under Article 67 (4) of the Constitution and Article 42 of the Law on Legislation and provide a legislative interpretation of Article 168, section 1, of the Criminal Procedure Law, which provides:

"A People's Court shall pronounce judgment on a case of public prosecution within one month or, one and a half months at the latest, after accepting it. Under one of the situations provided in Article 126 of this Law, the period may be extended by one more month upon approval or decision by the Higher People's Court of a province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the Central Government."

Respectfully submitted,

PRC Citizens:


Other supporters:


*********************************************************
DemocracyNews is an electronic mailing list moderated by the World Movement for Democracy. The material presented in DemocracyNews is intended for information purposes only.
To subscribe to DemocracyNews, send an e-mail to demnews-on@free.ned.org
To unsubscribe to DemocracyNews, send an e-mail to demnews-off@free.ned.org.
DemocracyNews Archives, www.wmd.org/democracynews.html
For more information, contact world@ned.org.
*********************************************************

--------------------------
Source: "ChinaEWeekly".