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2/5/13, "China 'jails 10 over illegally detained petitioners'," BBC
"The group rounded up 11 petitioners from Henan province in April
2012, Xinhua news agency said, and kept them in a courtyard for several
days.
The defendants, who were also from Henan, received terms of between six months and two years. The court in Beijing said they had violated the petitioners' rights.
The 10 defendants were also ordered to pay compensation to those they detained, the Xinhua report said.
The tradition of petitioning the central government dates
back to imperial times, when the emperors would listen to the complaints
of common people.
Now, people with grievances at a local level - ranging from
land disputes to employment violations to unsolved crimes - can raise
their cases with the central government.
But these petitioners are often seen as an embarrassment to
local officials, with some intercepted by hired agents and held in
illegal detention in what are known as "black jails".
A report from Human Rights Watch in November 2009 said that the use of unlawful detention centres to hold petitioners was widespread....
The Chinese government until recently denied the existence of such
detentions, but has started to acknowledge the practise exists."...
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