China has formally arrested a dissident who traveled to Beijing to mourn the death of deposed leader Zhao Ziyang (趙紫陽), more than a month after he was detained, his wife said yesterday.
Police authorities informed Zhang Lin's wife, Fang Caofang, early yesterday that he had been charged for "allegedly inciting the subversion of state power," she said.
Zhang has been detained since Jan. 29, when he and fellow dissident Wang Tingjin were picked up by police at the train station in his home city of Bengbu in Anhui Province on their return from Beijing.
The pair had earlier tried to go the capital to pay their respects to Zhao but their request to attend his funeral was rejected by the funeral committee set up by the Communist Party.
authorities angered
Police are yet to release further details about the charges, although Fang said she believed his visit to Beijing angered authorities because they had earlier warned him not to make the trip.
Zhang, 42, is a core member of a newly formed committee set up by prominent dissidents to honor the memory of Zhao.
His political writing published on the Internet, much of which criticizes the communist regime, is also likely to have led to his arrest, she said.
If convicted, Zhang is likely to be imprisoned for at least five years, lawyers told Fang.
"I nearly collapsed when I heard about this, this is too much to bear," Fang said.
"My daughter is only two and she has been asking me every day where daddy has gone," she said.
denial
An official at the Bengbu No.1 Detention Center, at which Fang said Zhang was being kept, denied Zhang was there.
An official at the Bengbu city police said he had no knowledge of Zhang.
Zhang had previously been imprisoned for a total of eight years in China's "Re-education through Labor" network for taking part in pro-democracy activities.
Zhao died on Jan. 17 aged 85 and was cremated in a government-controlled ceremony in Beijing amid authorities' nervousness that the popular leader's death might spark off protests.
The former premier and communist party secretary general, who helped launched China's market reforms in the 1980s, was purged in 1989 after he opposed the decision by hardline elements in the leadership to use force against pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
RSS