Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that Guo Feixiong (郭飞雄, also known as Yang Maodong, 杨茂东), who was tortured by prison authorities and brutally beaten by an inmate, has been denied access to his lawyer. Guo is serving a five-year sentence in Meizhou Prison, Guangdong Province, and intends to appeal his conviction and file a complaint against the prison authorities. Guo’s wife, Zhang Qing (张青), told HRIC that on October 20, Guo’s Beijing-based lawyer, Hu Xiao (胡啸), after traveling more than 1,000 miles to Meizhou prison, was not permitted to see Guo.
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“Guo Feixiong was convicted on the basis of confession obtained through torture,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of HRIC. “In several days, the UN Committee Against Torture will review China’s compliance with its international treaty obligations against the use of torture. HRIC calls on the Chinese authorities to take the first step toward giving Guo a fair trial by allowing him immediate access to his appeal lawyer.”
Before his imprisonment, Guo had worked as a legal advisor and, in 2005, helped the villagers of Taishi in Guangdong to remove their corrupt village chief. In September 2006, he was detained on the charge of “illegal business activity” and was held for 15 months before being tried in November 2007. He was subjected to many acts of torture during detention, including being:
After his trial and conviction, Guo was transferred to Meizhou Prison in December 2007, where he was brutally beaten by an inmate while 200 others watched. When he went on a hunger strike to protest his abuse, he was forced fed a liquid that made him vomit for more than a week and turned his urine red.
In a letter to HRIC on October 29, 2008, Zhang said that the authorities had created many obstacles to prevent Guo from going forward with his appeal, including intercepting many letters Guo wrote in an attempt to retain a lawyer in early 2008.
After Guo finally succeeded in retaining a Beijing-based law firm in May 2008 to handle his appeal, he agreed to wait until after the Beijing Olympics before proceeding. The prison authorities then required two lawyers to apply in-person at the Guangdong Provincial Prison Administrative Bureau for permission to see Guo. In October, after traveling to Guangdong and going through the proper application procedure to see Guo in Meizhou, Hu waited for several days but never received an answer.
For more information on Guo Feixiong, see:
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In several days, the UN Committee Against Torture will review China's compliance with its international treaty obligations against the use of torture. HRIC calls on the Chinese authorities to take the first step toward giving Guo Feixiong a fair trial by allowing him immediate access to his appeal lawyer.