Detained journalist’s lawyers want charges dropped

The lawyers of a detained journalist said they still hope local authorities in Pingdu, Shandong Province, will drop the charges.

Chen Baocheng, a journalist with the Beijing-based Caixin Media, was arrested for illegally detaining a worker during his protest against forcible demolition in Jingouzi village, the local prosecutor's office said.

Chen Qingsha, the villager whose home was demolished, was also arrested for the same allegation.

On August 9, the journalist and several other villagers stopped an excavator driver from digging up Chen Qingsha's land.

They called the police, who didn't respond, and they kept the worker for more than 25 hours.

Eight villagers, including the journalist, were detained two days later on charges of illegal imprisonment. Six have since been granted bail.

Over 90 attorneys and law experts have formed a support group.

Some of them are representing the fellow villagers to get them out on bail, and asking for government information disclosure regarding the construction projects that led to the demolitions.

"The arrest just gives the police more time to handle the case; we still insist that they are innocent," Pu Zhiqiang, one of the lawyers representing the journalist, told the Global Times.

On July 4, Chen Qingsha and her two children were taken from their home by dozens of men for hours, only to find their home was razed when they returned.

Their possessions were either moved or destroyed, Chen told her lawyer.

The journalist, with some fellow villagers, has been challenging the legitimacy of various local construction projects and protesting against demolition for seven years.

The village committee, in the meantime, announced in late August that it would stop demolition on the ancestral home of Chen.

The notice was issued to Chen Shuxun, father of the reporter.

It claimed that the "renovation" to their family home and its land would be cancelled as the village could not afford the overly high compensation request from the family, and that the property is now theirs to reside in long-term.

The notice added that the family has to pay for utilities in the future, as the village committee had covered the fees for the last two years, reported the Jinan-based news portal dzwww.com.

"The local government had decided to stop the demolition in July, but did not announce it in the hope that Chen's family would change their minds about compensation standard," Chen Weisheng, secretary of Jingouzi village, was quoted as saying by the news portal.