China rights campaigners seek blind activist's freedom

BEIJING, July 14 (Reuters) Chinese civil rights campaigners called on the government to free a blind rural activist, whose campaign against forced abortions attracted worldwide attention, and investigate reports of torture.

Activist Chen Guangcheng, from Linyi city in the eastern coastal province of Shandong, will be tried next week on charges of disrupting traffic and destroying property following a February protest in his home village, Dongshigu.

Chen was placed under house arrest for almost 200 days last year after he exposed late-term abortions and other coercive family planning measures under China's draconian one-child policy.

The house arrest and the formal detention since March have seriously violated China's constitution and international human rights standards Beijing has pledged to honour, the campaigners said yesterday in an open letter circulated on the Internet.

The letter was signed by nine high-profile legal activists, dissident writers and scholars, including Chen's defence lawyer, Li Jinsong.

''Judicial departments should ... free Chen and other villagers as soon as possible and investigate the legal liablities of those abusing his rights,'' read the letter, which was posted on the Web site of Chinese Rights Defenders (crd-net.org).

It said Chen had been tortured in police custody and staged hunger strikes in protest.

Chinese leaders have been accused of paying lip service to protecting human rights and rule of law, while intensifying crackdowns on dissidents, civil rights campaigners and outspoken journalists and academics in recent years.

Yesterday, Li Yuanlong, a reporter for the Bijie Daily in the southwestern province of Guizhou, was jailed for two years for posting anti-government essays on the Internet.

REUTERS SHB KP1103