Sunday, April 10, 2011

The testimony of Ai Weiwei's assistant points to an arrest for ideological reasons

One of the assistants who worked with the artist and dissident detained Sunday Ai Weiwei, was insulted and threatened during a police interrogation, reports the independent newspaper "South China Morning Post. The aide, called Liu Yanping and 30 years old, told the paper that was questioned in particular about the independent investigation conducted Ai on the influence of corruption in the collapse of schools in the earthquake of 2008 in Sichuan 5,000 children who died.

Research two years ago earned the artist a beating from the police which caused a stroke. Assistant's testimony contradicts the official statements say that the famous Chinese contemporary artist is being investigated for alleged economic crimes and his arrest has nothing to do with human rights.

"I told them I had joined the workshop Ai volunteered to help in the research on the earthquake in Sichuan, and therefore knew nothing about his financial situation," said the assistant to be questioned about your salary and after the police finds that carried no tape recorder. Liu was interrogated at the police station Nangao in Peking Chaoyang district on Thursday by a policeman surnamed Zhao who insulted her and threatened to punish her husband if she refused to cooperate with him.

"I even pushed against the seat when I asked him after two hours to let me go to the bathroom. Two other uniformed officers were limited to watching as Zhao humiliated me. And just let me go to the toilet when they allowed me to leave at 10 night, "he told the Independent newspaper. Liu is one of the artist's assistants and collaborators who have been questioned since he was arrested Sunday as he prepared to board a flight at the airport in Beijing to Hong Kong.

Designer detention Beijing 2008 Olympic stadium has triggered criticism from human rights groups, governments like the U.S., Europe and Australia and has brought together the art world, which calls for signatures to its release to the web change. org. Although the Chinese Government has assured that his detention is in accordance with law, to date Ai's family has not received the notice required by law that within 24 hours of an arrest, and police have not issued any order formal arrest after the legal deadline of 48 hours.

In fact, the ultranationalist and government daily 'Global Times' re-publish a second editorial against the artist who attacks the pressure from the West, while acknowledging that there were irregularities in the arrest of Ai. The Government should be "more cautious when deciding to arrest public figures (such as Ai), the next time they should prepare more convincing evidence before deciding to act," the regime's mouthpiece newspaper of the second economic power.

The spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry Hong Lei said Thursday that the operator was being investigated for alleged economic crimes and his arrest had nothing to do with human rights declarations that they had disappeared from the transcript of the press conference in ministerial web.

Ai's arrest ends the toughest crackdown in a decade against dissent undermined China, where 200 activists, scholars and lawyers have been arrested, disappeared or have been harassed, after the Nobel Peace Prize were borne October in the political prisoner Liu Xiaobo. E

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