Brothers of Chinese activist barred from trial and forced to return home
Hu Shuigen went to Tianjin to see Hu Shigen face the court, but ended up being escorted back to Jiangxi by police
Two younger brothers of veteran activist Hu Shigen were barred from attending his hearing and escorted back to their hometown by authorities the day before the trial, according to one of the brothers.
When the grey-haired activist faced a Tianjin court and pleaded guilty to charges of subverting state power on Wednesday morning, his brother Hu Shuigen was hundreds of kilometres away in his home province of Jiangxi, with no idea the hearing was taking place.
“We did not expect at all the trial would be opened today. I was at work this morning and suddenly fainted at around ten o’clock. That’s when I had the hunch that the hearing must be on,” Hu Shuigen said over the phone.
He only learned about his brother’s seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence on the internet, after his colleagues sent him home to rest.
Hu Shigen is one of the four rights advocates to face trial in Tianjin this week. They were all detained during a massive crackdown last July, which resulted in the detention or interrogation of some 300 rights lawyers and activists, among whom about two dozen were formally arrested.