Rights activist sues Anhui police over illegal detention of daughter
Zhang Lin, 49, who was previously jailed for leading student hunger strikes in Anhui in support of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement, lodged his case with provincial prosecutors on Friday.
A rights activist is suing police in Anhui's capital for illegally detaining his 10-year-old daughter after holding him and raiding his home without a warrant last month, he said yesterday.
Zhang Lin, 49, who was previously jailed for leading student hunger strikes in Anhui in support of the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement, lodged his case with provincial prosecutors on Friday.
He said a policeman took him to the Hupo police station in Hefei on the morning of February 27, saying he needed to apply for a temporary residence permit because he was originally from Bengbu.
The policeman then detained him and took his mobile phone and keys, and searched his home without a warrant, he said. When he said he needed to pick up his daughter from school in the afternoon, police refused to let him.
His daughter was then picked up by four unidentified men and was taken to the Hupo police station, where she was kept in a meeting room for more than three hours, Zhang said. He said he only saw her at around 7pm, after repeated requests.
Father and daughter were kept together until the next afternoon, by which time she had been held for 20 hours, he said. Zhang is divorced and said no one in his family was told about their detention.
