Lu Banglie (
Lu has said that he was battered unconscious and later driven hundreds of kilometers to his home town where he is now recuperating. Civil rights lawyers said they were considering a legal case against his attackers, thought to be a group of thugs hired by the local authorities to put down an anti-corruption campaign against the chief of Taishi village.
Although the attack was witnessed by a foreign correspondent, the local propaganda department insisted there had been no violence and provincial officials said it was too early to respond to requests for a full investigation.
Missing
Lu went missing on Saturday night after he attempted to take the Guardian's Benjamin Joffe-Walt into Taishi, a flashpoint in a growing wave of regional unrest that has challenged the authority of the Chinese Communist Party. He was last seen lying unconscious on the side of the road.
Late on Monday, however, Lu re-emerged from hospital in his home town of Zhijiang, Hubei Province to tell his version of what happened after he was dragged out of the car by an angry mob.
"Five to six of them pulled my hair and punched me in the head. They kicked my legs and body for a couple of minutes. Then I passed out. Some people then splashed water on me which brought me round, then I passed out again," he said.
When he came to, he was being driven back to Hubei.
Check up
The propaganda office said Lu had been picked off the road near Taishi at 9pm -- an hour after the assault -- taken to a nearby hospital for a check-up and then at 1.30am driven out of the area.
The Pan Yu propaganda office said there had definately been "no violence" and that Lu had "pretended to be dead."
Lu said such claims were laughable.
"When I came around, I was too nauseous to eat. My body aches all over and my head hurts," he said.
But he said only his arm was visibly wounded.
Legal action
His supporters, who include lawyer Gao Jisheng(
The Guardian has asked the Guangdong authorities to investigate the attack but a spokeswoman said a response would be made in the next few days.
Lu said he was aware of the dangers and had no regrets about going to Taishi.
"I believe you cannot write off truth. The authorities control the village tightly. They try to prevent news from leaking out, which hurts not only the democratization of Taishi village but the entire country," he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia