Four rights lawyers detained after questioning Falun Gong detentions
Rights experts held on 'cult' allegations while probing treatment of Falun Gong members
Four human rights lawyers investigating the illegal detention of several Falun Gong members have themselves been detained in Heilongjiang province, fellow lawyers said yesterday.
Jiang Tianyong and Tang Jitian were placed on 15 days of administrative detention on Saturday for "using cult activities to endanger society", Li Fangping and Teng Biao said. A copy of the police notification of Tang's detention was seen by the South China Morning Post.
The whereabouts of the other two lawyers, Wang Cheng and Zhang Junjie, were unclear. Their accompanying clients - nine relatives of the detained Falun Gong members - were also detained on Friday, Li said.
Li said on Thursday thatthe lawyers and relatives had gone to a "legal education centre" - a euphemism for an illegal detention centre - at the state-run Qinglong farm in Jiansanjiang to ask about the detained members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, which has been deemed an "evil cult" by Beijing.
Telephone calls to the public security bureau in Jiansanjiang went unanswered.
Li said the lawyers also went to the local prosecutor's office to file a complaint. But early the next day, they were hauled from their hotel by around a dozen plain-clothes police officers, he said.