A/HRC/7/3/Add.1 page 43 Para Country Date Type Mandate Allegations transmitted Government response sent home later that day. Approximately eight hours later, Yuan Weijing, was dragged out of police car and left in a barely conscious state on the side of the road near her village. She was taken to Mengyin County Menglianggu Hospital where she was treated for extreme trauma however she was accompanied by up to 20 policemen as an order of “residential surveillance” had been issued while she was in detention. She is also suspected of the offences of “gathering crowds to disrupt traffic” and for “intentional destruction of property”. Furthermore it is reported that the local authorities have intimidated witnesses and withheld evidence in order to prejudice Chen Guangcheng’s retrial. Four other key witnesses have been subject to police harassment in relation to the most recent trial and were subjected to torture in order to provide false testimony against Mr. Chen Guangcheng in his previous trial. According to reports, Mr. Chen Gengjiang was detained on 26 November 2006 and held until after the hearing had taken place. He was forced to sign papers in which he agreed not to participate in the case. On the same day, Mr. Chen Guangdong and Mr. Chen Guangyu disappeared after they had agreed to testify on behalf of the defence. Later the same evening, Mr. Chen Guanghe was abducted by undercover police officers as he was on his way to meet with Mr. Li Fanping regarding the upcoming trial in which he was scheduled to testify the following day. He was formally arrested on 28 November but his family was not informed of his arrest or his original court because there had been insufficient evidence to convict Chen Guangcheng for the offence of gathering a mob to disrupt the flow of traffic are unfounded. On 27 November 2006, sitting at a reconstituted bench, the Yinan county people’s court reopened the case in open proceedings, Chen’s brother attended the court in the public gallery, and Chen’s defence was conducted by the lawyers Li Fangping from the Beijing Ruifeng law firm and Li Jinsong from the Beijing Yitong law firm. During the proceedings, Chen’s rights in litigation were fully upheld: he exercised his own rights to defence and the lawyers appointed by him also made submissions in his defence. On 1 December 2006 the court ruled at first instance and made public its verdict: for the offence of wilful damage to property, it sentenced Chen to seven months’ fixed term imprisonment and, for the offence of gathering a mob to disrupt the flow of traffic, it sentenced him to four years’ fixed term imprisonment, ruling that he should serve a combined term of four years and three months. After sentencing at first instance, Chen refused to accept the court’s verdict and once again lodged an appeal. The Linyi city intermediate people’s court, after hearing the case at second instance, ruled that Chen, as a means of giving vent to personal grievances, had caused and incited others to cause wilful damage to property, the amount of which was considerable, and that his conduct had infringed public and private ownership rights and constituted the offence of wilful damage to