Family members demand release of Tiananmen commemoration attendees

On the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015, family members of people arrested at a commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre went to the Guancheng District Procuratorate in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. They included detainee Yu Shiwen’s 85-year-old mother, his older sister and his wife Chen Wei, Dong Guangping’s wife Gu Shuhua, and Hou Shuai’s mother Ma Aiqin. When procuratorate officials declined to see them, they displayed banners that read “The deceased are most important. It’s not a crime to commemorate the souls of the dead” and “Yu Shiwen, Dong Guangping and Hou Shuai are innocent. Your families are waiting for your return home.” Security guards stopped them, so they went to the sidewalk and opened the banners again.

Ms. Chen Wei, wife of Yu Shiwen, said that as frail as her mother-in-law is, she is as determined as her husband. They called for the return of their loved ones and for justice by the legal system.

In the past, Yu Shiwen held two events in memory of June 4. Gravely ill, he is now being detained at the Zhengzhou Number Three Detention Center.

On February 2, 2014, together with his wife Chen Wei, Yu Shiwen and people from all walks of life in Zhengzhou held a service in Huaxian County, Henan Province in memory of the June 4, 1989 massacre and two liberal reformers who had high positions in the government before their deaths, Zhao Ziyang and Hu Yaobang. Participants were subsequently arrested and purged by the authorities.

On December 30, 2014, of the ten detained—Yu Shiwen, Chen Wei, Shao Chengdong, Dong Guangping, Shi Yu, Fang Yan, Hou Shuai, Ji Laisong, Chang Boyang and Yin Yusheng –  seven have been released. Yu Shiwen, Dong Guangping and Hou Shuai still are imprisoned.

http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2015/01/201501061802.shtml