BUXELLES, 18 March 2009: The International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC, together with the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), welcomes the release of Yao Fuxin, a labour activist from Liaoning province, after serving his seven years’ prison term on conviction of “subversion of State power”.
On March 16, 2009, Yao Fuxin was released from Lingyuan n°2 Prison, Liaoning province, considered as one of the harshest prisons in China and where most detainees are political prisoners.
Before his detention, Mr. Yao was one of China’s most outspoken labour activists. In 1998, he joined others to petition the central government against corruption at the Liaoyang Ferro-Alloy Factory.
In May 2001, the factory’s workers alleged that the robbery of 2.000 tons of iron ore at the factory had been led by local court officials and that the subsequent bankruptcy of the factory had been orchestrated by the factory’s leaders in collusion with the local government. Mr. Yao and other workers had demanded a full investigation that was never conducted.
In March 2002, Mr. Yao, then spokesperson of the newly founded All-Liaoyang Bankrupt and Unemployed Workers’ Provisional Union, was arrested along with Mr. Xiao Yunliang (who was released in February 2006, three weeks before completing his four-year prison sentence) for having led a peaceful demonstration against corruption and the non-payment of overdue wages and pensions – a demonstration that gathered at least 5.000 workers from six factories in Liaoyang (Liaoning province).
According to Human Rights in China (HRIC), Mr. Yao was initially charged with “gathering a crowd to disrupt social order” and then sentenced in May 2003 to seven years in prison for “subversion of State power” for alleged involvement in the banned China Democracy Party.
The ITUC and the Observatory urge the Chinese authorities to release all human rights defenders arbitrarily detained in the People’s Republic of China, to put an immediate end to any kind of harassment against them, and to investigate all cases of torture or ill-treatment so that those responsible can be brought to justice and sanctioned according to law.
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