Guangdong-based rights activist and writer Guo Feixiong (郭飞雄), also known as Yang Maodong (杨茂东), was released from the Meizhou Prison in Guangdong Province on September 13, 2011, after serving a five-year sentence on conviction of “illegal business activity.”
Guo told Human Rights in China (HRIC): “I am still the same person as five years ago. No amount of ‘special treatment’ [in prison] would make me more radical or weaken me. My conviction in defending the rights of people has not changed in the slightest.”
He is thankful to those in China and overseas who have shown their concern for him and his family over the past five years. “I will never forget the help they gave me,” Guo said.
Before his imprisonment, Guo had worked as a legal advisor with the Beijing Shengzhi Law Firm and, in 2005, helped the villagers of Taishi in Guangdong to remove their corrupt village chief. In September 2006, he was detained for “illegal business activity” and was held for 15 months before being tried in November 2007. In addition to the prison term, Guo was fined 40,000 yuan.
His wife Zhang Qing (张青), who currently lives in the United States, told HRIC that Guo's conviction was purely “a product of torture.” She said that, lacking evidence and in order to obtain a confession, “the Guangzhou and Shenyang police tortured him by using abominable measures.”
During his detention Guo was subjected to many acts of torture, including being:
When he was transferred to Meizhou Prison in December 2007, Guo was brutally beaten by an inmate while 200 others watched. He went on hunger strike several times to protest his abuse.
His ordeal has seriously damaged his health and left him frail. But he said: “I don’t care who did what to me in the past. … I want to work hard to help bring about tolerance and reconciliation. … I am filled with optimism for the future.”
For more information on Guo Feixiong, see:
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