Before Valentine’s Day, Su Changlan’s Husband Detained for Wanting to See Wife
Source: WRIC Translated by Tony Chong Flannery
Feb. 16, 2015
Liu Xiaoyuan, the lawyer of WRIC volunteer Su Changlan(left picture), stated yesterday that on the afternoon of February 15 he contacted the older brother of Su Changlan’s husband Chen Dequan, as well as the wife of Su Changlan’s older brother Su Shangwei. Both people told Mr. Liu that it was not until they found a local Chancheng national security brigade in the morning that they received a detention notice. The notice said that Chen Dequan and Su Shangwei were suspected of criminal provocation, and on February 14, 2015 they were detained. They are currently in custody at a detention center in the Chancheng
District of Foshan City.
Su Changlan and her husband are both behind bars, leaving a high school-age son alone and uncared for. After Su Changlan was detained, the family lost its primary economic support. When Su’s husband went out without his wife to search for missing children and to defend the rights of child brides in Fujian, he was in two car accidents that left him nearly paralyzed. His accidents happened one after the other, and he spent several months hospitalized with his injuries. As a result, he has been at home trying to recover his health for the last few years.
To let Su Changlan’s son continue his studies at boarding school and pay his living costs, volunteers at WRIC headquarters in New York worked together to donate money for his studies. But the money sent to China via Western Union was frozen by the government and the police in Foshan, Guangdong would not allow Chen Dequan to collect it. Up to now the boy still has not been able to receive any of the donations for his education, and after losing his father’s care, what a blow the youth’s spirit and life have suffered! However, he knows his mother is an upstanding and decent mother who stepped forward bravely for a disadvantaged group and shouted that they had done no wrong. His father only wanted to know the mother’s situation and see her—what’s wrong with that? As so many families celebrate this New Year, this child is out in the bitter cold on his own.
(Image designed by WRIC’s Zhang Jing)
Su Changlan was accused of incitement to subvert state power and arrested three months and 18 days ago. Then on February 14, 2015, Valentine’s Day, her husband Chen Dequan and her older brother were detained on the same day by the police in Foshan City’s Chancheng District on charges of criminal provocation. According to Mr. Liu’s understanding of the situation, on February 12, because the Foshan Public Security Bureau’s national security detachment refused to see him and would not respond to petitions, Su Changlan’s older brother Su Shangwei stood beside the Foshan Public Security Bureau’s sign holding a piece of paper with “Su Changlan is innocent! Expressing my hope” and “Send Su Changlan home! Conscience is nonviolent!” and took two photographs.
After returning home, he might have posted the photos online. The next day, the night of the 13th, Su Shangwei was subpoenaed and taken away. On the 14th, a little after 3 AM, Chen Dequan was also taken from his home. Up to the present, three people have been detained for trying to rescue Su Changlan. Besides Chen Dequan and Su Shangwei, there is also Chen Qitang (Tianli). After Su Changlan was arrested, Tianli always accompanied her family members as they sought negotiations with the police, and also wrote an essay appealing the detention. On November 24 of last year, a woman who claimed to have been imprisoned with Su Changlan called Chen Dequan to arrange a meeting. She also especially wanted Tianli to come along and meet her. The next day, the three had just sat down at a hotel in Dali, Nanhai District when the police seemed to appear out of nowhere to arrest them. After this, Tianli never returned home, having been detained by the Nanhai police on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power. Tianli’s circumstance is the same as Su Changlan’s, and even now Tianli is not allowed to meet with a lawyer.