Aids villagers 'forced to admit charges'
At least six Aids villagers detained for about a month in Henan province yesterday pleaded guilty to charges ranging from fraud to disruption of social order. They have been allowed to return home but their punishment of a one-year term involves reporting to authorities.
Aids activists dismissed the pleas, saying the villagers were forced to admit to the charges and were victims of a broader persecution of Aids volunteer workers.
The villagers - four from Shangqiu city's Shuangmiao village and two from neighbouring Songzhuang village - arrived home after the afternoon trial. They must report to officials whenever they are called.
The informal trial was conducted at the detention centre in the presence of police, court staff and family members.
Shuangmiao villagers Pan Zhongfeng , 35, and Fan Zhenbang , 45, and Orchid School for Aids Orphans co-ordinator Wang Guofeng , 43, and wife Li Suzhi , 41, were detained last month. The Songzhuang villagers were not identified.
The condition of another two villagers from Jinzhuang who were detained about the same time remained unknown. It was unclear if they were still being detained.
Sources believed the one-year term was to be served outside jail because the six villagers are HIV-positive. They were ordered not to speak to the media and not to leave the county unless given approval.
The sources said the six were weak because they were only fed three buns a day and were reluctant to talk to the press because they feared their phones were tapped.
They said fraud was one of the charges levelled against the Wang couple. Sources said the charge followed their request for 3,500 yuan in compensation from a vegetable seller who beat up Mr Wang during an argument in January this year.
Wang's wife admitted to two charges of disrupting public order, one of which related to her and 12 others with HIV asking for compensation in January from a Zhecheng county hospital where they caught the virus while selling blood.
The source said: 'What is fairness and unfairness? You can't reason with them [the authorities].' The source said the couple would not dare to help Aids orphans now, out of fears of facing a jail term.
'Authorities were targeting a few Aids villagers to warn others not to cause trouble,' a source said.
Wan Yanhai , director of Beijing-based Aizhixing Institute of Health Education, said authorities were using unrelated charges to 'persecute' the Wangs and Aids volunteer workers. Aids activist Li Dan , director of Orchid School in Shangqiu city, said: 'This is not the right procedure. How come they were sentenced just in one day?'
