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An appeals court in China's Shandong province on Tuesday ordered a retrial for human rights advocate Chen Guangcheng -- who was arrested in China after trying to expose alleged human rights abuses associated with the enforcement of the country's one-child-per-family policy -- according to one of Chen's lawyers, the New York Times reports (Kahn, New York Times, 11/1). Chen in August was sentenced by a court in China's Shandong province to four years and three months in prison for allegedly "willfully damaging property" and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic." Chen also recorded testimony from men and women in communities in and around China's Linyi province who have experienced forced abortions and sterilizations, as well as had family members captured and tortured after they tried to hide or run from authorities. He was attempting to bring a class-action lawsuit against the Chinese government for alleged human rights abuses associated with the enforcement of the one-child policy. The policy seeks to keep the country's population -- now 1.3 billion -- at about 1.7 billion by 2050. Ethnic minorities and farmers are the only groups legally exempt from the rule (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/31). Reaction, Next Steps According to Li Jingsong, one of Chen's attorneys, the Linyi City Intermediate Court overturned the sentence "because the process of the first trial was unfair and facts and evidence ... were not tenable and did not hold water" (Ang, AP/Houston Chronicle, 10/31). The court's decision "shows the original verdict was seriously flawed, as we argued at the time," Xu Zhiyong, another one of Chen's attorneys, said, adding, "But now the problem is whether the new trial will recognize that and the court will reject its own previous verdict" (Blanchard/Beck, Reuters, 10/31). Teng Biao, a legal scholar who had been helping Chen's case, said the case has "taken a more positive turn, but that doesn't mean the whole of the legal system has made any improvements," adding, "We welcome the court's decision ... but whether there will be a fair and just outcome still remains to be seen" (Yu, AFP/Yahoo! News, 11/1). According to Li, the case has been sent back to a lower court after Chen's sentence was overturned by the Linyi City Intermediate Court (AP/Houston Chronicle, 10/31). The case now returns to Yinan county court, Xu said (Reuters, 10/31). You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.
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