Chinese police have denied bail to a prominent lawyer detained in Beijing last month ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident, which fell on Wednesday last week.
Police detained attorney Pu Zhiqiang (浦志強) early last month after he attended a small meeting at a Beijing residence to discuss the 1989 massacre.
Pu’s lawyer, Zhang Sizhi (張思之), yesterday said he does not think his client “will be released any time soon. A criminal charge is very likely, given the circumstances and the reasons of the detention,” but did not elaborate.
Pu was among dozens of activists detained or placed under house arrest across China as part of the authorities’ bid to deter any commemoration of the massacre.
Several others who attended the meeting in Beijing with Pu had also been detained, but were released last week after the June 4 anniversary passed, activists said.
As Chinese authorities step up a campaign against online “rumors” relayed on social media that was launched last year, police have arrested a female student for comments she made on Twitter apparently about the crackdown.
Beijing authorities arrested a 22-year-old surnamed Zhao (趙) for using Twitter to “spread news of law-breaking methods,” the China News Service said on Monday.
The details given in the report appeared to match the Twitter account of Zhao Huaxu (趙華旭), a student in Beijing who posted a plan to use a transmitting station to broadcast information about the Tiananmen massacre via SMS.
Twitter is blocked in China, although some users circumvent controls to use the service, but arrests for posts are rare.
State media yesterday also reported that police killed a suspect who was attempting to take over a primary school in the latest incident of violence targeting children to hit the country.
The unnamed suspect was shot dead yesterday morning after trying to seize control of a school in Qianjiang in central China’s Hubei Province, according to the provincial news Web site Jingchu.
Police believe the suspect may have left an explosive device on the campus, state broadcaster CCTV said, adding that teachers and students had been moved to a safe location.
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