Alert

RSF supports Chinese intellectuals' petition for release of Internet essayist Du Daobin

Incident details

Du Daobin, Liu Di

web dissident(s)

arrested

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(RSF/IFEX) - RSF supports the petition launched by Chinese intellectual Liu Xiaobo to press for the release of Chinese cyber-dissident Du Daobin. The organisation has denounced the illegitimate use of Article 105 of the Chinese criminal code.

Du Daobin, aged 40, was arrested more than three months ago in Yingcheng, Hubei province while he was on his way home from work. He is accused of posting articles about human rights on the Internet and of criticising the draft reform of Article 23 of Hong Kong's Constitution, which threatened freedom of expression.

He is expected to be charged with "incitement to subversion of state power" shortly.

"We believe that it is completely abusive to charge people who have done nothing more than share their opinions with others on the Internet with 'subversion'," said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard.

The petition launched by Liu Xiaobo has already been signed by 102 Chinese academics and intellectuals.

Du Daobin has been imprisoned for more than three months at Xiao-Gan prison. He has had to find a new lawyer because the authorities took his previous lawyer off the case. No member of Du Daobin's family has been allowed to visit him to date, according to the latest information available.

Du Daobin was arrested on 28 October 2003 as he was on his way home. Police seized computer equipment, hand-written letters, an address book and foreign books. They "strongly advised" his wife, Xia Chun-rong, and his 12-year-old son not to have any contact with foreign journalists. The police also told his wife that he had "gone too far."

Du Daobin posted a number of pacifist articles on the Internet advocating democracy and greater freedom of expression in China. He campaigned for the release of Liu Di, a young student who was imprisoned for posting messages calling for democracy in China on online forums. Liu Di was released on 28 November, after spending more than one year in detention without trial.

The petition can be signed at http://www.rsf.org