Day: May 23, 2023

Chinese authorities have notified the family of veteran rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan of their formal arrest on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble,” a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the Communist Party, friends of the couple told Radio Free Asia.

Yu and Xu were detained last month en route to a meeting with European Union officials in Beijing, prompting calls for their release from Brussels.

U.S.-based rights lawyer Wang Qingpeng said there are now fears that Yu and Xu may be tortured in order to elicit a “confession,” given the amount of international attention generated by their arrests.

“The authorities will be concerned about how this case looks … and about international attention,” Wang said. “A lot of lawyers have been warned off representing Yu Wensheng and his wife.”

“Many lawyers have been tortured already, including Xie Yang, Wang Quanzhang, Chang Weiping and Zhou Shifeng,” he said. “We have reason to believe that Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan could also be tortured, so as to avoid further outside attention and attempts at rescue.”

“There could be further [and more serious charges] to come, for example, ‘incitement to subvert state power,’ which is impossible to predict right now,” Wang said.

Chinese courts almost never acquit political prisoners, and the charge Yu and Xu currently face generally leads to jail terms of up to five years.

Lawyers warned

A friend of the couple who asked to remain anonymous said Yu’s brother received notification of his formal arrest on May 21.

“According to what I have learned, Yu Wensheng has put up a great deal of resistance to the authorities since his detention,” the friend said. “His brother has also said [their detention] is unacceptable.”

Police informed Yu’s brother of the change of status on Sunday, but had refused to give the family anything in writing, the brother said.

“His brother tried to get a photo of the notification of arrest, but the police stopped him,” they said. “Now Yu Wensheng’s family need to find a lawyer to help him, but a lot of lawyers have been warned off doing this by the authorities.”

They said police had also told the family not to try to find their own lawyer to represent the couple.

Another person familiar with the case, who gave only the surname Shi, confirmed the friend’s account.

“They wouldn’t let their [18-year-old] kid instruct a lawyer, and the police were also telling people that Yu Wensheng didn’t want a lawyer, and that Xu Yan had already hired two lawyers,” Shi said. 

“Then the police visited the law firms [that might potentially represent Yu and Xu] and put pressure on them — the Beijing municipal judicial affairs bureau also stepped up the pressure, threatening the law firms that they would fail their annual license review,” he said. 

“I don’t know whether they actually revoked any licenses or not — we won’t know until early June,” Shi said.

Son alone

A friend of the couple who gave only the surname Qin said he is worried about their situation, and also about their son, who is living alone in the family home under strict police surveillance, with no contact with the outside world.

“It has destroyed this family, and their kid is still so young with nobody around to take care of them — it’s wrong to arrest both husband and wife together,” Qin said.

The European Union lodged a protest with China after police detained veteran rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his activist wife Xu Yan ahead of a meeting with its diplomats during a scheduled EU-China human rights dialogue on April 13.

“We have already been taken away,” Yu tweeted shortly before falling silent on April 13, while the EU delegation to China tweeted on April 14: “@yuwensheng9 and @xuyan709 detained by CN authorities on their way to EU Delegation.”

“We demand their immediate, unconditional release. We have lodged a protest with MFA against this unacceptable treatment,” the tweet from the EU’s embassy in China said, referring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

A well-known writer and social activist was arrested at a military junta checkpoint on Tuesday while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to victims of the recent cyclone that devastated the region.

Wai Hin Aung was arrested in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state just after passing through the checkpoint in Sittwe township on his way to villages affected by the May 14 storm known as Cyclone Mocha, according to a person close to the writer who refused to be named for security reasons.

He was traveling with a group of five people, including his daughter, the person told Radio Free Asia. 

“He was going to Ponnagyun to deliver aid to cyclone victims there,” the person said. “We haven’t got any contact with them so far. Nor do we know why they have been arrested.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Wai Hin Aung reported on his Facebook page that he had given 100,000 kyats (US$50) each to 16 families sheltering at a school in Sittwe township. 

RFA interviewed him on Friday, asking whether rice bags and other supplies were beginning to make it through to affected areas.

“What I know for sure is that the help from the junta alone will not suffice the need because the damage is too large,” he said. “About 3 million people have been affected by the storm and about 120,000 households have been damaged, too. 

International assistance needed

People in Pauk Taw and Rathedaung townships urgently need drinking water and shelters, he said. In Pauk Taw, sea water has mixed in with most of the drinking water reservoirs from the flooding that followed the storm, and even cattle can’t drink the water and are beginning to die, he said. 

With the rainy season set to begin soon, rebuilding adequate shelters for villages throughout the state should be the top priority, he said. Food and medical supplies are also urgently needed but are second and third priorities, he said.

“In my opinion, the help from the junta and local communities will not meet the needs of victims,” he said. “That’s why I want the junta to cooperate and get help from international organizations to effectively help the victims.”

Wai Hin Aung was previously arrested in 2018 along with Rakhine nationalist lawmaker Aye Maung after they delivered speeches at a public event in Rathedaung township calling for revolt against Myanmar’s ethnic majority Bamar-led government.

He was sentenced the following year to 20 years in prison for high treason and to two years for incitement. He was freed in February 2021, weeks after the military junta overthrew the civilian government.

RFA called Rakhine state Attorney General Hla Thein to ask about the arrest, but his phone rang unanswered on Tuesday.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Matt Reed and Josh Lipes.

It was December 2022 when junta troops under the leadership of Major Aye Chan Aung raided the homes of deposed National League for Democracy lawmaker Hla Hla Win and her son, making off with valuables and the deed to her son’s property.

Four months later, she told RFA Burmese, she learned that her son’s home in Bago region’s Shwe Kyin township had been sold, leaving the family with little recourse to recover it.

“The junta forces raided my house and took away furniture, including my wardrobe,” she said. “Since my important documents were in that wardrobe, they took [the deed to] my son’s house and pawned it and then, when they could not afford to get it back, they sold it for 12 million kyats (US$ 5,700).”

Hla Hla Win said that following the April 3 sale, she contacted the seller over the phone, but received no response.

The seizure is just one of nearly 1,000 carried out by the junta on homes and private buildings in the slightly more than two years since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, the NLD said Tuesday, in what observers call a coordinated attack on the party.

Based on the NLD’s findings, the junta has confiscated at least 971 buildings belonging to 849 party members, including NLD representatives and democracy activists, since the takeover. Most have been accused of “spreading fake news” and “incitement against a junta employee” under Article 505 (a) and (b), as well as violating anti-terrorism laws.

The buildings include places of business, restaurants, religious buildings, hospitals and clinics, schools, guesthouses and hotels, the NLD said.

The party said its list was compiled based on interviews with victims of the seizures, as well as area residents and civil society organizations, and suggested that the actual number of confiscated properties may be much higher.

Nay Zin Latt, a lawmaker for Sagaing region’s Kanbalu township under the democratically elected NLD government who is wanted by the junta for alleged acts of terrorism and violating Article 505 (a) and (b), told RFA that the junta seized the homes of both his parents and in-laws in late 2021.

“The junta sealed off my parents house and compound in Kanbalu’s Htan Kone village,” he said, speaking from an undisclosed location to avoid arrest. “But since they are such brutes who commit the most inhumane crimes against the people, the act of confiscating civilian properties is nothing to them.”

Targeting the party-affiliated

While more than half of the properties seized are owned by NLD lawmakers and supporters, the rest belong to people who are affiliated with the party but are not politically active, said an official with Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) who declined to be named, citing security concerns.

“When the junta can’t arrest someone, it seizes the properties of his or her family members,” said the official. “That’s how the junta tries to punish not only anti-junta activists, but his or her relatives, too.”

Such seizures are unlawful, a lawyer who spoke on condition of anonymity told RFA.

“The military seals off people’s properties whenever it wants … [but] there are limitations that law enforcement must follow in taking such actions,” the lawyer said. “The court has to issue warrants to seal off private properties under certain laws.”

Properties sealed by court order may not be used by other citizens or foreign nationals for their personal interests, he said.

“Such properties must be kept under the custody of the court as evidence in the case against the owner” and can neither be repurposed or sold, the lawyer noted.

Confiscated properties can only be transferred to state ownership once a defendant receives a final court order, he said, at which point they may be sold through the country’s Investment Commission.

Bid to dissolve NLD

Kyaw Htwe, a member of the NLD’s central working committee, said the seizures are part of a bid by the junta to dissolve the NLD and harass its members.

“Although the junta seized power on the pretext of voter fraud, it aims to dissolve the party chosen by the people to lead the country – in effect, ignoring the will of the people,” he said. “There are many people who have lost their houses and properties, just as NLD party members have … We are working to secure a victory so that we can make the best of their sacrifices.”

According to Kyaw Htwe, the junta has sealed off at least 115 NLD party offices across the country since the coup.

Junta security forces have arrested hundreds of NLD members over the same period, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint.

Translated by Myo Min Aung. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Matt Reed.

Chinese stand-up comedian Li Haoshi was placed under investigation and his management company was fined nearly $2 million after he told a joke mocking a 2013 speech by top leader Xi Jinping that critics said likened feral dogs to People’s Liberation Army soldiers. Li, who goes by the stage name House, canceled all his performances after the backlash, which observers believe may have triggered a wave of last-minute cancellations of music festivals, rock concerts and other gatherings. Some organizers cited “force majeure,” suggesting high-level political pressure to scrap the events.

A political prisoner serving an 11-year sentence at a jail in southern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province has accused staffers of contaminating the drinking water in the prison canteen after he fell ill with abdominal pain and diarrhea.

Nguyen Van Duc Do, 47, said he got sick after drinking water he purchased at the canteen at the Xuan Loc Z30A Prison, more than 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Ho Chi Minh City, his younger brother, Nguyen Duc Hai, told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday. 

Do is serving the seventh year of his jail term for “carrying out activities to overthrow the government.” 

Do said he and his prison roommate, Vuong Thanh Thuan, recently bought 17 20-liter jugs of drinking water for drinking and cooking, and that he started having stomach aches and diarrhea while using the fourth jug. 

In Vietnamese prisons, inmates can buy water and ready-made foods, such as instant noodles, to cook for themselves.

“After leaving the water there for a few days, it smelled like pesticide,” Hai said. “When he drank the water again, he got an unbearable stomach flu and then diarrhea.”

Do suspected guards tried to poison him because he and his cellmate fell ill after using the water, while other inmates bought similar water jugs but did not have any problems, his brother said.

As a result, he now must buy more expensive bottled water to drink, though he will not be able to afford it for long, Hai said.

Do, a former member of the Coalition for National Self-Determination of the Vietnamese People and vice president of the Vietnam Labor Movement, asked a guard to let him see the prison warden to complain about the drinking water issue, but the prison guard did not respond to his request, his brother said.

The health and well-being of political prisoners has been a long-standing concern of human rights groups and inmates’ families whose relatives have become seriously ill or even died while in jail due to lack of safe food and water and access to outside medical care when needed. 

RFA could not reach officials at Xuan Loc Prison to verify the information.

A former political prisoner who was released from Xuan Loc Prison last year but wanted to remain anonymous for safety reasons, told RFA that the detention center provided inmates with water from drilled wells for drinking and washing.

Do was arrested in November 2016 along with four other members of the Coalition for National Self-Determination of the Vietnamese People. They all were charged with “carrying out activities to overthrow the government” and given sentences ranging from eight to 15 years imprisonment at a 2018 trial.

Do, who has constantly maintained his innocence, told his family that he refused a guard’s offer for a reduced sentence if he admitted guilt.

He has been held in solitary confinement at times without access to fresh air and exercise, causing his health to decline, and was threatened by guards with a dog when he banged on his cell door for help while experiencing chest pain and difficulty breathing, according to the 88 Project, a human rights group that advocates for persecuted Vietnamese political activists.

Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned four North Korean entities and one person for their role in a fundraising scheme that uses cryptocurrency to funnel stolen money and salaries “fraudulently” earned abroad back to Pyongyang for its weapons program.

The sanctioned entities include the Pyongyang University of Automation, described as one of the North’s “premier cyber instruction institutions,” and the Technical Reconnaissance Bureau, which the Treasury Department says works closely with Lazarus Group, a team of hackers who last year stole US$620 million in cryptocurrency.

The 110th Research Center, a subsidiary of the Technical Reconnaissance Bureau that has created “outages” at South Korean media outlets and attacked financial and government institutions in Seoul, has also been added to the U.S. sanctions list.

All three entities are accused of “malicious cyber activities” to steal funds for use in Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program, with South Korea’s government also simultaneously issuing similar sanctions.

“Today’s action continues to highlight the DPRK’s extensive illicit cyber and IT worker operations, which finance the regime’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs,” Brian Nelson, under secretary of the treasury, said in a statement.

$300,000 annual salaries

The list of sanctions entities, though, also includes the Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company, which is accused of managing computer specialists who “fraudulently” work remotely at companies in developed countries and earn hefty salaries.

“In addition to theft resulting from cyber intrusions, the DPRK generates significant revenue through the deployment of IT workers who fraudulently obtain employment with companies around the world, including in the technology and virtual currency industries,” the Treasury statement said, using an acronym for the North Korean regime.

“The DPRK maintains a workforce of thousands of highly skilled IT workers around the world, primarily located in the People’s Republic of China and Russia, to generate revenue that contributes to its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs,” it continued. 

“In some cases, DPRK IT workers can each earn more than US$300,000 per year,” it said.

The workers “obfuscate their identities, locations, and nationalities, typically using fake personas, proxy accounts, stolen identities, and falsified or forged documentation” to apply for remote jobs at firms in wealthy countries, the statement said. 

They have developed apps across the categories of “business, health and fitness, social networking, sports, entertainment, and lifestyle,” it added.

The Treasury Statement also says one individual – Kim Sang Man – has been sanctioned for managing “the payment of salaries to family members of Chinyong’s overseas DPRK worker delegations.”

‘A sharp break’

Experts told Radio Free Asia that cutting off financing was a critical part of weakening the North’s nuclear weapons program.

The sanctions represent an “important step in degrading North Korea’s ability to engage in illicit cyber-attacks to generate revenue” and raise awareness of how crypto is being misused, said Troy Stangarone, a senior director at the Washington-based Korea Economic Institute.

“In addition to making it more difficult for North Korea to act, the new designation is a reminder to crypto businesses and tech companies that North Korea is working to exploit their systems for its own gains and the need to take additional precautions,” Stangarone said. 

Bruce Klinger, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, meanwhile, said the simultaneous sanctions issued by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s government showed the year-old administration in Seoul was taking a less diplomatic route than its predecessor.

The cooperation marks “a sharp break from the Moon Jae-in administration which sought to reduce international sanctions and law enforcement measures against North Korea as well as downplaying Pyongyang’s human rights violations,” Klinger said.

Edited by Malcolm Foster.