24 Aug 2009 | Index Index, minipost
Chinese authorities have released legal activist Xu Zhiyong and two other activists. Xu Zhiyong, founder of the Beijing-based Open Constitution Initiative, was unexpectedly freed on bail, along with co-worker Zhuang Lu, after more than three weeks in prison on charges of tax evasion. In a separate case, Ilham Tohti, an economics professor who had written about economic discrimination against the Uighur minority, was released after about six weeks in custody. Read more here
24 Aug 2009 | Index Index, minipost
Leading Chinese human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong has been released from his three-week detainment on charges of “tax evasion”. Zhiyong’s arrest was viewed as part of a wider crackdown on Chinese activists in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of Communist rule. Xu Zhiyong’s colleague Zhuang Lu and Uighur Internet activist Ilham Tohti were also released.
Read more here
19 Aug 2009 | Index Index, minipost
Leading Chinese Human Rights lawyer Xhu Zhihong has been formally arrested and faces up to seven years imprisonment on a charge of tax evasion. Zhihong is co-founder of Gongmeng (Open Constitution Initiative) which has taken on some of the most sensitive and high-profile cases in the past few years. His arrest comes amid a recent crackdown on humanitarian lawyers in the run up to the 60th Anniversary of Communist rule in October. Read more here
15 Aug 2009 | Digital Freedom, Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
The U.S. government is covertly testing technology in China and Iran that lets residents break through screens set up by their governments to limit access to news on the Internet. The “feed over email” (FOE) system delivers news, podcasts and data via technology that evades web-screening protocols of restrictive regimes, said the U.S. government’s Broadcasting Board of Governors. Read more here
