Press Release
June 10, 2011
Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC) strongly protests that Journalist Qi Chonghuai, an honorary member of ICPC, has been sentenced to a further 8 years imprisonment in addition to the four years he has almost completed for “extortion and blackmail” and “embezzlement” by Tengzhou Intermediate People’s Court, Shandong Province on June 9. ICPC calls on all the international community to pay more attention to this case, and calls on the Chinese authorities to ensure Mr. Qi’s legal rights to appeal against the verdict and his freedom from any ill-treatment during his remaining imprisonment, and for his immediate and unconditional release.
Qi Chonghuai, aged 46, had been a journalist for 13 years prior to his arrest in 2007. He had worked for People Public Security Report-Shandong Weekly and China Safety Produce and other newspapers since June 2004. He had served as Shandong Bureau Chief of Development Department of Legal Morning Post during June-December 2006. He was also special correspondent of Legal Weekly and Reporter Observation. Qi Chonghuai was known for reporting corruption and social injustice in Shandong province and was repeatedly warned to stop such reports by the authorities before his arrest. On June 14, 2007, Qi Chonghuai published an article anonymously on Xinhua Net and other Websites exposing the corruption of Tengzhou CPC and caused a sensation. He was arrested and his home in Jinan was raided by Tengzhou Police for suspicion of “economic crimes” on June 25. The next day he was held under criminal detention for suspicion of “bluffing”. On August 2 he was formally arrested on suspicion of “extortion and blackmail”. Journalist He Yanjie in Jinan who cooperated with Qi was also arrested.
After intensive investigation on this case, ICPC believed that Qi Chonghuai and He Yanjie were accused purely by fabrication and suffered reprisals due to exercising their journalistic duty and criticism of official corruption in their reports. Therefore, ICPC adopted them in its caselist in 2007, recommended the lawyers for their defense, and awarded them honorary members. On May 13, 2008, Tengzhou Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Qi Chonghuai to 4-year imprisonment and He Yanjie to 2-year imprisonment on “extortion and blackmail”. WiPC of PEN International issued a Rapid Action Network alert calling on Chinese authorities to release them immediately and unconditionally.
Qi Chonghuai was due to be released on June 25, but the Tengzhou Public Security Bureau resubmitted the case against him to the Procuratorate on May 4. The Procuratorate presented an indictment to Tengzhou Intermediate People’s Court on May 27, and on June 9 the Court held a trial and sentenced him to six years for “embezzlement” and three years for “extortion and blackmail.” On top of a four-year sentence for “extortion and blackmail,” handed down in 2007, Qi has been sentenced to a total of 13 years in prison, of which he will serve 12 years. Deducting 4 years that he has served, Qi Chonghuai has to serve another 8 more years in prison.
According to ICPC’s source in China, the severe sentencing of Qi Chonghuai once more is based on fabricated charges and false evidences cooked up by the authorities who aimed at revenging his exposing abuses in prison. He often complained of being beaten, tortured and threatened in prison and smuggled out a number of letters to describe the abuses and ill-treatments he experienced in graphic detail in 2009.
ICPC believes that Qi Chonghuai’s twice sentences and continued detention have been apparently the serious violations against the freedom of expression guaranteed both by Article 35 of China’s Constitution and by Article 19 of UN International Covenant on Civil and Political rights of which China is a signatory, and calls on Chinese authorities to ensure Qi’s rights of appeal and his well-being, and to reexamine his case according to law for his immediate and unconditional release.
ICPC calls once again on domestic and international communities to express concerns on the deterioration of freedom of expression in China, and to urge the Chinese authorities to release all of those imprisoned for their words, including ICPC members Liu Xiaobo, Shi Tao, Yang Tongyan and Zhu Yufu.
PEN International is the oldest human rights organization and international literary organization. The Independent Chinese PEN Center is among its 145 member centers and aims to protect writers’ freedom of expression and freedom to write worldwide and advocates for the rights of writers and journalists who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted or harassed in China particularly.
For more information, contact
Dr. Yu Zhang,
Executive Secretary and WiPC Coordinator
Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC)
Tel: 46-8-50022792
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
Websites: http://www.chinesepen.org/english