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Alert

RSF calls for release of jailed cyber-dissident Yang Jianli

(RSF/IFEX) - RSF is backing an appeal to the Chinese authorities for the release of jailed cyber-dissident Yang Jianli, who is reportedly on a hunger strike in protest over his prison conditions.

The organisation is also calling on United States (US) Secretary of State Colin Powell to put pressure on the Beijing authorities to release Yang Jianli, who has been a permanent US resident since 1989 and is the husband and father of US citizens.

In a letter to the authorities, Yang Jianli's family condemned his imprisonment as illegal under China's Criminal Code. The cyber-dissident has been imprisoned in Beijing for the past 22 months.

He was tried on 4 August 2003 and the court subsequently adjourned for deliberation. The authorities had four months from that date to make a ruling, in accordance with Criminal Code provisions. This deadline has passed and Yang Jianli's continued detention is an infringement of Chinese law.

The family's letter was given to the People's National Congress Permanent Committee on 12 March 2004. Yang Jianli's wife Christina Fu, an American citizen, has since launched a petition for her husband's release on the website http://www.yangjianli.com. RSF supports the petition and calls for the cyber-dissident's immediate release.

Yang Jianli has asked to be allowed to speak to his lawyer, Mo Shaoping, without prison guards and security agents recording their conversation. He has also asked to be allowed to write letters and has protested the 14-month wait to see his lawyer. According to unconfirmed reports, the cyber-dissident began a hunger strike on 3 March to push for his demands.

Yang Jianli was editor-in-chief of the dissident online review "Yibao" (http://www.chinaeweekly.com). He was arrested in April 2002 after returning to China, using a friend's passport, to investigate worker strikes in the country's north-east. It was his first time back in China since he was expelled for taking part in Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989.

Officially arrested for "failing to have a valid passport", Yang Jianli is in fact the victim of government repression of political dissidents. On 17 July 2003, he was charged with "illegal entry into Chinese territory" and "spying for Taiwan".