![\"Hu](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2014\/09\/Hu-Shigen.jpg\")
Mr. Hu Shigen, aged 61,\u00a0has been\u00a0a member of ICPC in Beijing since December 2009. He was born in Nanchang County, Jiangxi Province, China, in 1955, and admitted to Peking University as a student of Chinese Literature in 1979. After receiving his Master\u2019s Degree in 1986, he became a lecturer at the Beijing Language and Culture University. Hu participated in the Democracy Movement in 1989. After the June 4th Massacre, he was investigated and dismissed from his teaching position. On December 20, 1991, Hu joined Liu Jingsheng, Wang Tiancheng, Kang Yuchun and Chen Qinglin in holding a \u201ccore member meeting\u201d for the Freedom and Democracy Party, which approved a political program and constitution drafted by Hu and elected him as its chairman. In1992, the groups began planning memorial activities for the third anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Incident in Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities. The authorities found out about the plot and detained Hu Shigen on May 27, with dozens of other arrests taking place throughout China in the following months. December 16, 1994, the Beijing Municipal Intermediate People\u2019s Court found Hu Shigen guilty of organizing and leading a \u201ccounterrevolutionary clique\u201d and of \u201ccounterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement\u201d, for which he was sentenced to 20 years\u2019 imprisonment. PEN International expressed great concern regarding Hu Shigen\u2019s case, and he was adopted as an honorary member of English, Canadian and Independent Chinese PEN centers. He continued writing in prison, including the essay \u201cHow Big a Character is Xin\u201d, which was managed to get out of prison, and published and translated into English by PEN (https:\/\/pen.org\/nonfiction-memoir\/how-big-character-xin<\/a><\/span>). In June 2008, the US-based National Endowment for Democracy awarded Hu its annual Democracy Award. Hu Shigen was released on August 26, 2008, following three sentence reductions, but he continued to be deprived of his political rights for an additional four years, and remained under police surveillance and frequent summonses. On 3 May 2014, Hu Shigen joined a dozen of writers and scholars at a commemoration seminar on 25th<\/sup> Anniversary of June Fourth Incident in Beijing, and was detained until 5 June to be released on bail. A year later, on 11 July, he was detained for suspicion of inciting subversion of the state power and creating troubles, on 7 August ordered to hold at an unknown location under residential surveillance, on 8 January 2016 formally arrested for suspicion of subverting the state power by the Public Security Bureau of Tianjin City, and on 3 August convicted for the same change and sentenced to seven years and six months imprisonment and five years deprivation of political rights. ICPC has issued a protest statement denouncing the sentence as a violation of freedom of expression.<\/p>\nEach year on 15 November, members of PEN international all over the world commemorate the \u201cDay of Imprisoned Writers\u201d and honour the courage of our imprisoned colleagues in order to protest against repression and defend freedom of expression. ICPC reiterates that freedom of expression, including the freedom to write and publish, is an inalienable and fundamental human right. ICPC will continue to urge the release of LIU Xiaobo, HU Shigen, Mahvash SABET, ZHANG Haitao, Shokjang and all those imprisoned for their writings.<\/p>\n PEN International is the world’s oldest human rights organization and international literary organization. ICPC is one of PEN International’s 144 centers and aims to protect writers\u2019 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.<\/p>\n For more information, please contact<\/p>\n Ms. Guozhen XIAO Yu ZHANG Websites: http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC … Continue reading ![\"mahvash-sabet\"](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2016\/11\/Mahvash-SABET.jpg\")
Ms. Mahvash SABET is a teacher and poet, currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Evin prison, Tehran. She began her professional career as a teacher and worked as a principle at several schools. She also collaborated with the National Literacy Committee of Iran. Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Sabet was fired from her job and blocked from working in public education, like thousands of other Iranian Baha\u2019i educators. She served for 15 years as director of the Baha\u2019i Institute for Higher Education, which provides alternative higher education for Baha\u2019i youth. She is one of a group of seven Baha\u2019i leaders known as the \u2018Yaran-i-Iran\u2019 \u2013 \u2018Friends of Iran\u2019 \u2013 who have been detained since 2008 for their faith and activities related to running the affairs of the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed community in Iran. The Baha\u2019i community in Iran has been the focus of a systematic, state-sponsored persecution since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. After the revolution, the \u2018Yaran-i-Iran\u2019 \u2013 \u2018Friends of Iran\u2019 \u2013 was formed with the full knowledge of the government and served as an informal council for the Baha\u2019i in Iran, working to support the spiritual and social needs of Iran\u2019s 300,000-member Baha\u2019i community, until its entire membership was arrested in 2008. Mahvash Sabet was arrested on 5 March 2008 while on a trip to Mashhad. The other six members of the group were arrested on 14 May 2008 at their homes in Tehran. All were imprisoned without charge until January 2010, during which they were held incommunicado for weeks and were not allowed access to legal counsel. Charged with espionage, propaganda against the Islamic Republic, the establishment of an illegal administration, cooperation with Israel, sending secret documents outside the country, acting against the security of the country, and corruption on earth, their trial began on 12 January 2010. On 14 June 2010 each of the defendants was sentenced to 20 years\u2019 imprisonment, after six brief court sessions characterised by their lack of due legal process. Their sentences were later reduced to ten years each when an appeals court revoked three of the charges; however, in March 2011, the prisoners were informed of the reinstatement of their original sentences. They have never received official copies of the original verdict or the ruling on appeal despite repeated requests. Mahvash Sabet began writing poetry in prison and a collection of her prison poems was published in English translation on 1 April 2013 (http:\/\/grbooks.com\/george-ronald-publisher-books\/poetry\/prison-poems-1358864879<\/a>). Her poems are described as \u2018sometimes a means of historical documentation\u2026; sometimes a series of portraits of other women trapped in prison with her; sometimes meditations on powerlessness, on loneliness\u2019 (
\nBookstore – Prison Poems – George Ronald Publisher<\/a>)<\/p>\n
\nExecutive Secretary and Coordinator of Writers in Prison Committee, ICPC
\nTel: +1-617-4015572, email: bjlawoffice@gmail.com<\/p>\n
\nCoordinator of Press & Translation Committee, ICPC
\nTel: +46-8-50022792, email: yuzhang08@live.se<\/p>\n