Case History: Liu Shihui
On 26 June 2014, human rights defender Liu Shihui was reportedly released from police custody in Shanghai and forcibly returned to his home town in Inner Mongolia by State Security officers.
Liu Shihui is a human rights lawyer who has been repeatedly targeted due to his work, which has included numerous investigations into rights abuses and helping victims of these abuses file lawsuits. On 20 February 2011, Liu Shihui was brutally assaulted as he attempted to photograph a street protest in Guangzhou. Two days later he was disappeared and held in incommunicado detention for 108 days
On 26 June 2014, human rights defender Liu Shihui was reportedly released from police custody in Shanghai and forcibly returned to his home town in Inner Mongolia by State Security officers.
Liu Shihui has been repeatedly targeted due to his work, which has included numerous investigations into rights abuses and helping victims of these abuses file lawsuits. On 20 February 2011, Liu Shihui was brutally assaulted as he attempted to photograph a street protest in Guangzhou. Two days later he was disappeared and held in incommunicado detention for 108 days, an experience which he later blogged about. Since then, he has been subjected to constant harassment by the state security services and has been forced to return to Inner Mongolia several times, including in April 2014.
On 26 June 2014, Liu Shihui posted a message on his microblog stating that the State Security officers had come to collect him from the detention centre in the Pudong District in Shanghai, where he had been held since 13 May 2014. The human rights defender declared that, despite his protests that he had been released and was unwilling to return to his home town, State Security officers forced him to board a flight to Inner Mongolia. There is no further information about his situation at present.
Liu Shihui has been one of dozens of human rights defenders around China detained in advance of the 25th anniversary of the violent crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests on 3-4 June 1989. Front Line Defenders issued an appeal regarding Liu Shihui on 16 May 2014. Among those still in detention are Messers Pu Zhiqiang, Hu Shigen, Xu Youyu, Hao Jian and Ms Liu Di, about whom Front Line Defenders issued an Urgent Appeal on 6 May 2014.
On 16 May 2014 human rights defender and lawyer Mr Tang Jingling was taken from his home by police in Guangzhou and detained on charges of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble'. A day earlier, it was confirmed that fellow lawyer and human rights defender Mr Liu Shihui is being detained by police in Shanghai, following his sudden disappearance on 13 May 2014. Both Tang Jingling and Liu Shihui are Guangzhou-based legal activists whose licenses to practise law have been revoked as a result of their work in defence of human rights.
At around 10am, police officers reportedly arrived at the home of Tang Jingling and carried out a search of his home that lasted two hours. During this time, Tang Jingling and his wife were instructed to sit still and were not permitted to use the telephone. When the search concluded, the police officers detained Tang Jingling and confiscated a desktop computer, a laptop, three mobile phones and a number of books. Prior to his detention, Tang Jingling had reportedly received a number of warnings from the police for his involvement in commemoration activities surrounding the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests and the subsequent crackdown in 1989.
At approximately 4pm on 13 May 2014, Liu Shihui lost contact with friends after taking a bus in the Pudong New Area in Shanghai. On 15 May 2014, it was reportedly confirmed by Liu Shihui's partner that the human rights defender had been detained by police and is being held in Pudong New Area Detention Centre. It is not yet known on what charges he is being detained. In April 2014, Liu Shihui was beaten by police in Guangzhou and forcibly sent back to his home town in Inner Mongolia due to his ongoing human rights defence activities.
Tang Jingling and Liu Shihui join dozens of human rights defenders around the country who have been detained in advance of the 25th anniversary of the violent crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests on 3-4 June 1989. Among those detained are Messers Pu Zhiqiang, Hu Shigen, Xu Youyu, Hao Jian and Ms Liu Di, about whom Front Line Defenders issued an Urgent Appeal on 6 May 2014.
