CHINA-RIGHTS/JOURNALIST Beijing tightens security around courthouse for activist's trial

Record ID: 872913

  • Title: CHINA-RIGHTS/JOURNALIST Beijing tightens security around courthouse for activist's trial
  • Date: 21st November 2014
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (NOVEMBER 21, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SECURITY IN FRONT OF BEIJING NUMBER 3 PEOPLE'S INTERMEDIATE COURTHOUSE VARIOUS OF POLICE CAR PARKED ON ROADSIDE BEIJING, CHINA (NOVEMBER 21, 2014) (REUTERS) TELEPHONE (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) JOURNALIST-ACTIVIST GAO YU'S BROTHER GAO WEI SAYING (OVERLAID WITH SHOT 3): "(Police) came to my house yesterday and talked with me for an hour. They came in at around 11 p.m. and talked to me until around 12." (Reporter asking: What did they talk with you?) "They just asked me not to go (to the courthouse today)." VARIOUS OF POLICE TELLING JOURNALIST TO LEAVE
  • Embargoed: 6th December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • City:
  • Country: China
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAAGAY9PFAS6YV8BTYOWSFOCD8Z
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Journalist-activist Gao Yu appeared at a Beijing court on Friday (November 21) accused of providing state secrets to foreign contacts.
    Security was tight around Beijing Number 3 People's Intermediate Court on Friday morning with scores of police officers and police cars seen outside it.
    Gao Wei, Gao's younger brother, said police told him late on Thursday (November 20) that he should not go to the courthouse and kept him under police guard from that evening.
    "(Police) came to my house yesterday and talked with me for an hour. They came in at around 11 p.m. and talked to me until around 12. They just asked me not to go (to the courthouse today)," Gao told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding that he had not been able to see his sister for six months.
    Gao was detained in April of this year, the official Xinhua News said.
    Gao is accused of illegally obtaining a highly confidential document and sending an electronic copy of it to a website abroad in June last year, Xinhua said, citing a police statement.
    Due to the nature of the case, Gao's family are not allowed to attend the hearing as it is closed to the public, Gao's lawyer said.
    Gao, who previously worked for state media, was a prominent supporter of the pro-democracy protests in 1989. She was jailed in 1993 for six years on charges of divulging state secrets.
    The arrest of Gao is the latest in a string of detentions that critics say shows Chinese leaders' sensitivity to dissent ahead of the 25th anniversary of the crackdown on a pro-democracy movement around Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register