Ye Guozhu (叶国柱)

Male, Beijing housing rights activist, active in protesting forced eviction and helped petitioners coming to the Capital to file complaints to central government, known as the “Olympics prisoner” due to his initiation into activism after his property was demolished to make way for a facility to be used for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Arrested in September 2004, is presently serving sentence at Qingyuan Prison in the Chading District of Tianjin. He suffers poor health and has allegedly been ill-treated. Only recently have authorities allowed him to see his family. Requests for visits or even for any information about Ye had previously denied despite appeals from relatives and supporters. A single letter was permitted in late December of 2005, in which Ye asked family to visit him in Chading’s Chaobai Prison. Mr. Ye reportedly underwent serious abuses during the period of interrogation and investigation at the detention center and then, after sentencing, at the prison.  He was frequently put into the “strict regime” unit — known as the “prison inside prison” — as retribution for his refusal to admit wrong doing.  He has a condition known as cerebral thrombosis and other health problems, which deteriorated in jail. In the “strict regime” unit, he was fettered and shackled, forced to sit upright for days on benches. Chronic confinement to bed by handcuffs led to deformation of his feet and swelling of his legs. Prior to transferring from the detention center into prison, he was also tied by his hands to the ceiling as police beat his legs and lower torso with batons.  To revenge him for his brother’s rejection to rude treatment by prison guards during a visit at the prison during the Chinese New Year festival, in February 2007, Mr. Ye was put under the “strict regime” again.  Prison guards told him he would be kept there till this October.

Ye, male, 50, operated a restaurant in downtown Beijing. The restaurant was forcibly demolished in 2001 in preparation for the Olympics, devastating the family livelihood, for which Ye repeatedly petitioned authorities for compensation without success. The family subsequently began staging public protests. Ye Guoqiang, his younger brother, who is visually handicapped, attempted suicide by jumping into the Golden Water River in front of Tiananmen in October of 2003.  He was sentenced to two years in jail for “disrupting social order.” In August 2003, Ye Guozhu and other petitioners organized the “September 18th 10,000 People March.”  They tried to follow legal procedures. The event failed to take place following unsuccessful applications to the Public Order Unit of the Beijing Public Security Bureau for authorization for the march. The organizers were then subjected to political retaliation. On August 27, 2004, Ye was detained by police from the Beijing PSB’s Eastern District Branch on charges of “disruption of public order.” On September 15 of the same year, the Eastern District Procuratorate authorized his formal arrest. On February 2, 2005, Ye was convicted of the crime of “creating trouble” (寻衅滋事罪) and sentenced to four years in prison by the Eastern District Court. The Beijing Municipal No. 2 Intermediate Court upheld the verdict upon appeal.

This case is included in the CHRD 2006 report on the situation of human rights defenders in China, which can be viewed here: /Article/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=4196