UK: Eight Parliamentarians Urge Foreign Secretary David Lammy to call for the release of pro-democracy activist Dr. Wang Bingzhang from Chinese prison
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/35965649
In a letter to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, eight British Parliamentarians call for the release of Dr. Wang Bingzhang, who was abducted in Vietnam in 2002 and sentenced to life imprisonment in China for his pro-democracy activities. He has spent 23 years in solitary confinement. Now aged 77, concerns are growing about Dr. Wang’s physical and mental health.
On June 27, 2002, Dr. Wang was in Mong Cai, a city in Vietnam bordering China, meeting Chinese labor activists. A group of men reportedly accosted him and forced him into a waiting van, which then transported him by boat to China. The Guangxi Public Security Bureau then took him into custody, and he was later charged with “offenses of espionage” and “the conduct of terrorist activities.” He was tried by the Intermediate People’s Court in Shenzhen, and sentenced to life imprisonment. His trial lasted only half a day and was closed to the public, and he was denied the right to due process, access to a lawyer, and a fair trial.
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“We warmly welcome these initiatives by British Parliamentarians to highlight the appalling case of Dr. Wang Bingzhang, who has endured solitary confinement in a Chinese jail for 23 years and whose abduction from Vietnam and forced rendition to China is widely recognised as arbitrary and in violation of international law,” said Benedict Rogers, Senior Director at Fortify Rights.
“Governments worldwide should condemn this egregious case of transnational repression.”
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