Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Chinese Police Arrest Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, Baidu Shuts Down Forum on “Pu Zhiqiang”

On the afternoon of May 6, 2014, the state-sponsored Beijing News published a report on its website entitled “Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang Missing for Two Days? Family: Arrested on Suspicion of Committing the Crime of Instigating Quarrels.” (律师浦志强失联两天?家属:涉嫌寻衅滋事罪被刑拘) Some excerpts:
Beijing News report on
Pu Zhiqiang's arrest.

Today at around 1:00 pm a Beijing News reporter called (Pu's) law firm, and an employee stated "It is true that we have not been in contact with him for two days."
. . . .
This afternoon at around 1:30, Qu Zhenhong (Pu's niece) made post on her verified Weibo under the title "Pu Zhiqiang's Family" confirming this information.

Qu confirmed to a reporter from the Beijing News over the phone that the Weibo was posted by her. According to her, this morning at around 8:00 am Pu's wife was notified via telephone from the Beijing Fengtai District Fanjia police station, and wasordered to come to the police station to retrieve the arrest notice.

"Yesterday afternoon he returned home and collected his computer," Qu said, and that yesterday morning he was taken away by the police to assist with an investigation, but after he retrieved his computer he was once again taken away by the police.

According to sources, before his disappearance on May 3 in Beijing Pu had taken part in a symposium along with about 10 other scholars.

今日下午13时许,新京报记者致电该律师事务所,一名工作人员称,“这两天我们确实没有联系上他”。
. . . .
今日下午13时30分左右,在其实名认证的新浪微博上,以“浦志强的家属”落款,发布了一条微博证实了此消息。

微博称,“浦志强律师以涉嫌寻衅滋事罪,于5月6日凌晨被海淀区公安局刑事拘留,现关押在北京市第一看守所。家属正在考虑聘请律师会见。谢谢大家关心。”

14时许,屈振红在电话中向新京报记者确认,微博为其所发。据她介绍,今天上午8时许,浦志强妻子接到了北京市丰台区樊家村派出所的电话通知,要求其前往该派出所取拘留通知书。

“他昨天下午还回家来取电脑”,屈振红说,浦志强是在昨日早上被警方带走配合调查的,但取完电脑后又在警方陪同下被带走。

有消息称,在失联前,浦志强曾于本月3日在北京参加了一个有10几名学者参与的研讨会。
The Beijing News article has since been deleted.

These screenshots show that Baidu shut down its “Pu Zhiqiang” PostBar (Tieba 贴吧) forum shortly after the Beijing News article was published.

Translation: Xu Zhiyong's Statement in His Own Defense

 Source: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/694913.html China Digital Times: On April 10, 2023, Xu Zhiyong, a well-known human rights de...