2014-09-18
A file photo of a patient at a psychiatric hospital in Fuzhou receiving a blood transfusion with bound feet.
AFP Photo
A Chinese blogger and a rights activist are being held in mental institutions, rights groups and activists say, sparking fears for their well-being.
Authorities in the southeastern province of Fujian detained outspoken blogger Shi Genyuan at his home on June 3 and forcibly committed him to the mental health ward of the Quanzhou No. 3 Hospital, according to the Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch website.
Shi’s committal means that only Quanzhou state security police have the power to release him from the facility, although nurses there said he didn’t consent to his detention there.
A campaign by Shi’s family and friends for his release has come to nothing in the face of threats from Quanzhou state security police, the group said.
Shi is being held on the basis of a “psychiatric evaluation” carried out by police in August 2013, after he was held on suspicion of “incitement to subvert state power” the previous May, it said.