Huang Qi, founder of 64Tianwang (Huang Qi)
Though the judge refused to deliver the verdict to family members, Zeng Li, Huang’s wife, indicated that she would appeal.
Zeng Li has reason to be concerned: Huang Qi, founder of 64Tianwang, China’s first human rights Web site, established in 1999, has been a victim of the communist regime since his 2003 imprisonment.
When Huang was sentenced to five years in 2003, the court asked him to write his own appeal letter in prison, but the prison police have withheld that appeal letter. This latest case dates back to May 13 of 2008 when the Sichuan earthquake killed thousands of school children trapped in poorly constructed school-buildings. The buildings are called “tofu-dregs” by Chinese.
When rescue efforts were much needed, Huang Qi led volunteers from the 64Tianwang Web site office to visit the affected area 11 times within a month to deliver relief supplies to the victims. He was detained by police on June 10.
According to Zeng Li, prior to the hearing Huang explicitly told his attorney to appeal if he was convicted. She said, “After reading the sentence, he [the judge] should have asked Huang Qi if he objected to the sentence, but instead, he immediately announced that the court was adjourned. I called out, ‘Huang Qi, appeal.’ The judge only said, ‘Court officer, take Huang Qi out.’ The judge also commented, very inappropriately, that Huang Qi is an adult and we [the court] will only provide him the verdict, not the families.”
Huang Qi was found guilty based on three unspecified articles. The defense lawyer, Mo Shaoping, indicated that Huang Qi was indicted in January and the case was not heard until Nov. 23, “The process took so long that it exceeded the legal time frame; the charge is three years.”
The defense lawyer Mo Shaoping also argued that Huang was sentenced based on insufficient evidence, stating that “The articles, obtained [by police] from the computer hard drive located at the 64Tianwang office have been published either online or at the newspapers and were available to the public. They are not 'secrets.' We have sufficient evidence demonstrating they are public documents.”
According to other activists, the court’s public notice board indicated that the hearing was open to the public. However, Huang’s mother and wife had to fight for their right to enter the courtroom. Many petitioners and activists who went to support Huang could only stay if they remained outside. There were other petitioners who were forcibly removed by the police after being hit and injured.
Huang Qi’s mother believes that her son has been doing good deeds, but he has been framed and put into prison by the judge—she called the judge the “real criminal.”
A number of Huang’s supporters held a protest outside the Hong Kong Liaison Office after the sentence was announced.
Beijing human rights activist Liu Anjun said that Huang’s sentence has “further demonstrated the communist regime’s evilness and violence more than ever. What Huang has done was to reveal the truth about the earthquake for the innocent children who died in the earthquake and the people of Sichuan,” she said. “He was only doing so, with a good heart, to show people the truth.”
Read the original Chinese article.
