E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6 page 43 to bed for 85 days and constantly guarded by four armed police. He was told to lie in bed with his hands and feet visibly outside of the blanket. If he did not obey the blanket was taken away. If he used his hands to scratch himself this was a violation of the rules. He said that the purpose was to weaken him; as if “to kill someone with a soft knife.” As a result he did not sleep properly and was cold as the blanket was very thin. One day he touched a nearby radiator to see if it was warm and was denied a meal as punishment. He reportedly sustained bed sores on his back and bottom. He did not confess. In the Collection and Redistribution Centre (CRC) his head and face were pushed against the floor in order to force a confession. A policeman and four inmates held him down against the floor for 5-6 hours. He first saw his wife and lawyer in the summer of 2003. At the end of 2003 he was sentenced to eight years in prison by Beijing Number 1 Intermediate People’s Court for ‘instigation and subversion” of the Government. Following the trial, he reportedly called for democracy in China and for the end of one-party rule, for which he was swiftly taken by the police to a pretrial chamber, where he was handcuffed behind his back, his head was pushed backwards causing him to fall to the floor, and was beaten and trampled on for 20 minutes. He could not get up and suffered from a swollen head and body. He arrived at Beijing Prison Number 2 on 14 January 2004. He complained that the food was bad, that he can see his wife for only 30 minutes every month. He is only allowed to exercise for two hours per week but this is not guaranteed. In his cell there are 10 people in an area of approximately 2m². Since he has been convicted of a political crime, possibly on the basis of information extracted by torture, the Special Rapporteur appeals to the Government that he be released. 7. Yang Jianli, aged 42, US-permanent resident (holding a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from UC Berkeley (1991) and a Ph.D. in Political Economy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government (2001) and political activist. Barred from returning to China for approximately 13 years, he entered China illegally and was arrested as he sought to travel to Thailand on 27 April 2002. For one year his family was not informed of his arrest. He was held in a Beijing public security facility for over seven months and was then moved to the State Security Detention Centre. He recounted that on one occasion, about two weeks after the Chinese New Year in late February 2003, as he was praying whilst washing, a guard asked him what he was doing and he replied that he was a Christian. Two days later four guards beat him because he talked back and ‘had not shown proper respect.’ He was forced to squat for 1.5 hours, and was kicked and beaten with an electric baton. In an opinion adopted on 7 May 2003, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Dr. Yang’s arrest and detention are arbitrary, and infringed his right to a fair trial. This decision was based on evidence that the Chinese authorities had detained Dr Yang for more than two months without an arrest warrant or charge. They also failed to formally acknowledge Dr Yang’s arrest or give him access to a lawyer throughout this time. The WGAD requested that the Chinese Government “take the necessary steps to remedy the situation.” In March 2004, in protest of his continued detention despite an overdue verdict, he refused to wear a uniform. As punishment he was handcuffed for two weeks. He was convicted of espionage and “illegal border crossing” by Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court and sentenced on 13 May, 2004 to five years’ imprisonment plus deprivation of political rights for one year. Shortly thereafter prisoners were sent to his cell to regularly harass him, the accumulated stress of which reportedly resulted in him suffering a stroke in July 2004. He is due for release from Beijing No. 2 Prison on 27 April, 2007. Since he has been convicted of a political crime, possibly on the basis of information extracted by torture, the Special Rapporteur appeals to the Government that he be released.