Tens of thousands people call for the immediate release of Hu Jia
The Hong Kong Journalists Association and the International Federation of Journalists launched a signature campaign on the internet on April 18 calling for the immediate release of the human rights activist Hu Jia. Within three weeks 1500 people and 17 organisations had signed the petition. These names have been sent to the Minister of Justice, with copies to Premier Wen Jia Bao and the Liaison Office of the Central Government in Hong Kong.
Hu Jia, aged 34, is a Buddhist. We hand in the petition with the signatures today, the day marking and celebrating the birth of the Buddha, to symbolise his early release and start a new life from now on. Hu, who has been suffering from cirrhosis of the liver for several years, is applying for a medical parole after he lost his rights to appeal his sentence. According to sources, Hu is suffering from problems with his spleen and his eye sight, and his requests to see a specialist have been ignored. Hu’s family have also been denied the right to visit him regularly after a single visit in early May, and they no longer know where he is being held. We urge the Chinese authorities to allow him access to medical care and to consider his application for parole.
Signatories to the campaign launched by the HKJA and IFJ mainly come from Hong Kong. However, many of citizens from the Mainland have also signed this petition for his immediate release. These people are from 16 provinces, autonomies and municipalities, covering half the administrative regions of China.
People from overseas have also signed, presenting global support for the release of Hu Jia. They are from 26 countries across six continents. Also, 17 organizations, some representing many thousands of members such as the IFJ Asia Pacific, are in support of the campaign. Therefore, the number of people urging the release of Hu number many tens of thousands.
Hu Jia’s wife, Zheng Jinyan, and Hu’s legal representative said it is not a small number and they thank the signatories for their concern. They wish the authorities to respect the views expressed by the people and to release Hu Jia immediately.
We reiterate that Hu Jia, who is being penalized only for his words, must be released immediately.
Hu Jia is a human rights activist who was arrested by the Public Security Bureau at the end of December 2007 and convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” by the Beijing No 1 People’s Intermediate Court on April 3, 2008, for voluntarily accepting two foreign media interviews and publishing five articles between 2001 and 2007. The HKJA and IFJ regard this as one of the worst cases of anyone being jailed for what he had written in China. His conviction and imprisonment drew a lot of attention and criticisms abroad.
Signatures are from people or organizations in the following countries and localities:
Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan
Mainland：
Shaanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hebai, Zhejiang, Hubei, Shandong, Guangdong, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Neimenggu, Shanghai, Chongqing, Tianjing and Beijing.
Overseas：
Canada, United States of America, Australia, Thailand, German, Sweden, Brazia, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, France, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, England, Pakistan, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Venezuela, Portugal, Bahrain, Israel, Liberia、Malaysia.
Organisations：
佛日山普濟功德會、Australia Chapter of Chinese Social Democratic Party、Civil Human Rights Front、Engineers for Universal Suffrage、Christians for Hong Kong Society、Broad Alliance to Rescue Dr. Wang Bingzhang、World Press Freedom Committee、Star Radio-Liberia、Karachi union of journalist, Pakistan、International PEN、International Press Institute (IPI)、IFJ Asia-Pacific、Hong Kong Journalists Association、Hong Kong Christian Institute、Hong Kong (English-speaking) PEN、Cartoonists Rights Network, USA、Bahrain Center for Human Rights (17 in total)
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