Ye Guozhu – evicted from his home

Property owner Ye Guozhu is one of the many Beijing residents evicted from their homes to make way for Olympic building work. He spoke out and is now behind bars.

We have reliable reports that he has been repeatedly tortured. He has been suspended from a ceiling by his arms and beaten, hit with electro-shock batons, forced to sit upright on a hard chair for long periods and to wear handcuffs and fetters.

He was due to be released from prison on 26 July this year, but at the last minute police told his family he will remain in custody until at least 1 October.

We believe Ye Guozhu is a prisoner of conscience and the charges against him are politically motivated. Sign the petition calling on authorities to immediately release him.

Secret trial

Ye Guozhu lost his two restaurants and home in 2003 when Chinese officials and property developers in Beijing’s Xuanwu district reportedly colluded to force a large number of residents to move. He, like his neighbours, didn’t receive any compensation.

The following year Ye Guozhu applied for official permission to stage a public demonstration. He planned to hold the demonstration at the same time as the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee was holding its annual meeting.

Three days after making the application he was detained and tried in secret. He was convicted of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble” and sentenced to four years in prison.

Denied medicine

Ye Guozhu is understood to suffer from high blood pressure, heart problems and blood clots. He also suffers back and ankle pain because of his treatment in prison.

Prison officials are reportedly only giving him basic high blood pressure medication, and will not let his family give him extra medicines.

Last February he was sent for 10 months of what’s called “discipline” – where he was again tortured and held incommunicado – apparently because he tried to appeal his conviction.

Homes demolished

In the build up the Olympics there has been intense development of Beijing city.

More than 1.25 million Beijing residents have been displaced by urban development projects, some directly related to the Olympics, estimates the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions. It reckons that number is likely to rise to 1.5 million by August this year.

Many of those evicted have reportedly been forced out without due process and without adequate compensation.

Usually they are relocated to poor-quality housing on the city outskirts. Real estate companies, which are often owned or linked to the authorities, who evicted the tenants, can then sell the land to developers for a large profit.

China's Foreign Ministry disputes the figures, saying, as at June, just over 6,000 Beijing families had been displaced by Olympic preparations over the previous five years.