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PRC activist to be ¡¥re-educated¡¦
ADMINISTRATIVE PUNISHMENT: Re-education through labor is
used against the Chinese Communist Party¡¦s political opponents so they can be
locked up without trial
AFP, SHANGHAI, CHINA
Saturday, Mar 13, 2010, Page 5
Chinese authorities have sentenced an outspoken Shanghai activist to 18 months
of re-education through labor for her protest at the trial of leading dissident
Liu Xiaobo (¼B¾åªi), her husband said yesterday.
A rights group warned that the case of Mao Hengfeng (¤ò«í·) could signal a tougher
stance from Shanghai authorities looking to silence dissent in the run-up to the
six-month World Expo, which begins on May 1.
Shanghai security officials handed down the punishment to Mao, 48, last week for
shouting slogans outside a Beijing courthouse in December in support of Liu, who
was jailed for 11 years for subversion, her husband, Wu Xuewei (§d³·°¶), said.
Wu said he had received a notice on Monday informing him that his wife was being
sent to a labor camp for disturbing social order.
¡§I think it¡¦s all lies, and they just want to jail Mao using illegal excuses,¡¨
he said.
Mao was shouting slogans about human rights to show support for Liu, a writer
and former professor who was convicted on subversion charges after he
co-authored ¡§Charter 08,¡¨ a manifesto calling for political reform in China.
She has repeatedly run into trouble with the authorities since the late 1980s,
when she resisted pressure to have an abortion and broke Chinese law by giving
birth to a second child.
She was dismissed from her job at a soap factory after the birth and tried
unsuccessfully to get the courts to uphold her right to work.
Re-education through labor (RTL) is an administrative punishment generally
handed down for minor offences such as prostitution, but is also used against
political opponents so they can be locked up without trial.
Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China, warned of the wider
implications of Mao¡¦s case for the dissident community ahead of Expo.
¡§In the period leading up to the May opening of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo in
particular, we urge the international community to pay close attention to the
Chinese authorities¡¦ continued use of RTL as a means to cleanse the city of
activists and petitioners,¡¨ she said.
Mao¡¦s attempts to petition the government have resulted in multiple detentions,
forced eviction and three admissions to a psychiatric hospital ¡X another tactic
often used to silence dissidents.
She was released in November 2008 after serving a two-and-a-half year sentence
for ¡§intentionally damaging property¡¨ while in detention.
In 2004, she was also sentenced to one-and-a-half years of re-education through
labor.
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