Hu Jia : Chen Guangcheng lawyers Li Fangping and Li Jinsong assaulted violently and wounded in Linyi City

By Hu Jia

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA

http://www.peacehall.com/news/gb/china/2006/12/200612270843.shtml

The following is based on a text message sent by Lawyer Li Jinsong this morning.

04:59 Emergency report. Li Jinsong and Li Fangping were beaten severely by a group of unknown thugs with iron sticks while on a bus to Linyi City on Dec. 27, 2006. Please don’t publicize this.

7:24 – Li just finished in surgery on a deep 3 cm long head wound. Fortunately X-ray showed that his skull was not fractured and he was waiting for a nurse to give him a shot.

07:37 – I am injured in the left eye and on the left hand. But my injuries were not more serious than those of Fangping. After I asked Fangping’s opinion, he said that the extent of our injuries is clear now, so it can be publicized.

After receiving a phone call from the second trial judge of Linyi City Intermediate People’s Court , Li Jinsong prepared to go to Linyi City for the tenth time. The trial judge said that he was conveying Guangcheng’s request, and hoped that the defense lawyers could meet with Guangcheng at the detention center in Yinan County again. Immediately, Li Jinsong and Li Fangping decided to go to Shandong province at 19:30pm on Tuesday, December 26. They gave their itinerary to the second trial judge.

Li Jinsong, Li Fangping, and two young defense lawyers Cheng Hai and Huang Kaiguo who were hired for detained Chen Guanghe, took a long distance bus from Beijing to Linyi City at 19:30 pm, December 26. On the bus, there was a woman wearing a winter police coat arranging their seats. It was not clear whether she was a member of the police or a bus attendant but she looked and acted like an attendant. Ordinary passengers do not have such authority. She seated Li Jinsong and Li Fangping next to her.

The seats of Li Jinsong and Li Fangping were close to the driver and near the front door. Li Jinsong, sitting at the front of the bus, watched the DVD shown and fell asleep at   around 22:00 pm. At 4:00 am on December 27, the woman woke up Li Jinsong and spoke to him with a Shandong accent, which he did not understand. At that time, the bus was in Linyi City. Shortly after, two unmarked vehicles stopped the bus, and approximately eight unidentified people boarded the bus and approached the woman. The woman unexpectedly identified Li Jinsong as a person who had sexually harassed her. Li Jinsong was shocked, since nothing like this had ever happened during the more than ten trips* he made by long distance bus between Beijing and Linyi. The unidentified thugs wanted to seize Li Jinsong and remove him from the bus when Li Fangping, who sat on the bunk above Li Jinsong’s, stopped them. The thugs began to beat Li Jinsong and Li Fangping using tools that looked like iron sticks. Li Jinsong thought they had been beaten violently for about five minutes. He called the police immediately after Li Fangping’s head was hit by the lethal weapon and had bled badly. After the assault the unidentified thugs and the woman got off the bus and swaggered away. The police did not appear. After the incident, the bus driver said that he did not know the woman and that the coat the woman was wearing had been borrowed from him (the driver). We can hardly imagine a woman borrowing clothes from a stranger. The driver said that the woman complained of being sexually harassed in the middle of the night, but did not name Li Jinsong. This set up is even more sophisticated than that of Xu Zhiyong, who was framed as a thief for stealing a package by a group of plainclothes police in Yinan Country on August 17. From all indications, the other side planned the attack in Beijing, targeting lawyer Li Jinsong, who is the chief coordinator of the group of lawyers working on Chen Guangcheng’s case and deals most frequently with public security police and procuratorial and judicial organs mostly in Shandong. The thugs were not after money but wanted to find a pretext to teach Chen Guangcheng’s defense lawyers a violent lesson.

Li Jinsong had to send Li Fangping first to Linyi People’s Hospital so that the injury could be examined and sutured. Fangping had a clear mind, but was very weak. Chenghai and Huang Kaiguo, after checking in to a hotel, also rushed to the hospital to meet Li Jinsong and Li Fangping.

Given the dangerous environment in Linyi, Shandong, Li Jinsong and Li Fangping decided that they would not go to meet with Chen Guangcheng and Chen Guanghe in Yinan Country in the absence of a police escort. The first priority was to protect the two young lawyers. Secondly, if the local government was being manipulated by unlawful elements, any legal proceedings would be useless.

Reportedly the Party Secretary of Linyi City, Li Qun, who is responsible for Chen Guangcheng’s case directly, will be promoted to membership on the Standing Committee of Shandong’s Party Committee and will possibly serve as secretary of the Jinan City Party Committee. Therefore, Chen Guangcheng’s situation will be worrisome.

Today’s incident has caused the most violent injury to Chen Guangcheng’s lawyers since August 2005. 2006 has been marked as a year of violent assault on lawyers in Shandong.

Hu Jia

On the 164th day of illegal detention by the Public Security Bureau in Beijing where the 2008 Olympics will be hosted