Alle 7.40 (orario di Pechino) di oggi, 19 novembre, Jiang Tianyong e sua moglie cercavano di lasciare casa per portare la loro figlia a scuola, quando sono stati bloccati da agenti della Pubblica Sicurezza e picchiati. La bambina, di fronte a tale violenza, è scoppiata in lacrime.

At 7:40 AM (Beijing time) on Nov. 19, Jiang Tianyong and his wife attempted to leave their home to take their daughter to school, when they were barred from leaving by Public Security Bureau officers, assembled at the gate of their apartment building. Before Jiang could reason with them, four officers grabbed him violently and began holding him down and beating him severely. A police officer named Wang Tao threw his wife to the ground and began pummeling her as well. Jiang’s daughter cried helplessly as she watched her father, bloodied and beaten, being dragged away to detention by the officers. Jiang Tianyong is now being held at the Yangfangdian PSB office of Haidian District, Beijing, under the guard of Officers Li Aimin and Wang Tao.

Jiang Tianyong had just returned to Beijing on Tuesday, November 17, after touring the United States for 4 weeks and speaking out on the unjust treatment of human rights lawyers in China. On several occasions, he and the other five Chinese human rights defenders on the tour advised U.S. officials to encourage President Obama to meet with human rights lawyers and speak out on religious freedom while visiting China.
Fearing the lawyers would become targets upon their return, Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission co-chair Frank Wolf of Virginia warned against ill-treatment upon the lawyers’ return: “If any of them are arrested or harrassed when they get back, I will do everything I can to just create the biggest problem possible for the Obama adminsitration and for the Chinese government.”

Yesterday, on November 18, Jiang Tianyong and a fellow legal researcher attempted to arrange a meeting with President Obama before he left China, hoping to follow through with the lawyers’ request for US acknowlegement of the current dire situation. After receiving a phone call from the U.S. Embassy, informing him President Obama would not be able to meet with the group of five human rights lawyers who had gathered, 200 police officers immediately pulled up, and interrogated Jiang and one of his colleagues in the hotel for over an hour. They were informed they “were not allowed to meet President Obama” and would “be held until he left” yesterday afternoon.

The brutal assault of Jiang Tianyong, his wife, and their daughter is an unjust an inexcusable attack on the rights of peaceful Chinese citizens. Jiang’s family now suffers even more from this abuse, as their well-being was taxed after Jiang’s license to practice law was revoked and his tenure at the Beijing Global Law Firm was terminated in April of this year.

ChinaAid denounces the cruel and inhumane treatment of human rights Attorney Jiang Tianyong. We call on the Chinese government to immediately release Jiang, to cease harassment and surveillance of his family, and to rectify their injuries to the family. ChinaAid further calls on the international community to voice their outrage against this unjust persecution, in the wake of Jiang’s courageous tour in the United States, calling on American leaders to voice their opposition to human rights abuses in China.

Fonte: Dossier Tibet, 19 novembre 2009