Dissident held over Li Wangyang death moved to secret location
Lawyer says move is designed to prevent him challenging charges laid against Zhu Chengzhi
A Hunan dissident charged with "inciting subversion of state power" following the death of democracy activist Li Wangyang was placed under "residential surveillance" at an undisclosed location yesterday - a move his lawyer says is designed to prevent him from challenging charges on behalf of his client.
Zhu Chengzhi, 62, was arrested last August on subversion charges and had been held at a Shaoyang police detention centre until yesterday.
His lawyer, Liu Xiaoyuan , said Zhu's family received a notice yesterday about Zhu's "residential surveillance" - which allows the police to hold a suspect but not necessarily at his home. Both Shaoyang police and prosecutors refused to say where Zhu was being held.
"Because he's no longer at the detention centre, I have no way of seeing him to discuss challenging his charges, nor can I get access to files detailing his charges to prepare for a court hearing," Liu said.
Zhu was the first of about a dozen of Li's associates to speak out about Li's suspicious death in June, raising fears that others in similar detention or under house arrest could face the same fate.
Li, 62, was a labour activist in Hunan who was jailed for his support of the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement in 1989, serving a total of 21 years behind bars for his activism.