Pékin2008

In China, freedom of expression, of opinion and association does not exist.

He Depu, is a 51 years old university scholar and researcher who once belonged to the prestigious Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.
He is a veteran dissident who participated in the Democracy Wall Movement in 79, the Democracy Movement in 89, the signature campaign for Wang Dan from 93 to 95 and helped to form the banned China Democracy Party.

He was arrested on 4 November 2002 for posting on the Internet articles "inciting to subvert state power" but his old ties with the banned Democracy Party undoubtedly weighed in the decision to arrest him.
He Depu had also signed an open letter calling for political reforms addressed to the People's National Assembly before the opening of the 16th Party Congress in November 2002.

On 6 November 2003, he was sentenced, in a few minutes' court session, to eight years' imprisonment followed by two years' subsequent deprivation of his political rights by the Beijing Intermediate Court.

During the court sitting, He Depu kept on calling, in a very loud voice for Democracy and criticized the Chinese political system.

He Depu has undergone a particularly harsh treatment in detention. He was, for instance, kept unable to move for 85 days and is at the moment in very poor health.
In 2004, He was again ill-treated and tortured.
Detained in Beijing n°2 prison, he was able to meet Manfred Novak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture when he visited China in late 2005.

In 2007, the prison officials threatened to deprive him of his family's visits because his wife, JIA Jianying, had revealed the hard detention conditions of her husband.


The China 2008 Olympics Collective calls for the immediate and unconditional release of HE Depu.