Tag: arbitrary detention

Thirty years since it disappeared Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Chinese government must be made to provide the truth about his whereabouts

Posted on by cswpress in Asia, China

On 14 May 1995 the Dalai Lama publicly announced the six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen Lama.

Tasked with recognising the next Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama, or ‘Great Scholar’, is one of the most important figures in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, with a spiritual authority second only to that of the Dalai Lama. For centuries, successive Panchem Lamas have lived in and led the influential Tashilhunpo Monastery in Tibet’s second largest city Shigatse, playing a key role in the development of Tibetan Buddhist scholarship.

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima

But Nyima has been denied this. Three days after he was recognised as the Panchen Lama, he and his family were abducted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Nyima became the world’s youngest political prisoner, and he has not been seen in public since.

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In China’s sprawling, complex legal system, it’s easy to trap the innocent

Posted on by cswpress in Asia, China

The Chinese criminal justice system is complex and expansive. There are multiple forms of detention, multiple types of arrest, and countless opportunities for the authorities to delay and defer proceedings – as they have done with increasing frequency in recent years – before a case even makes it to trial. 

This, of course, suits the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). A system that is difficult to navigate is easy to manipulate. It makes it harder for detainees, suspects, their lawyers and family members to know where they stand or even the charges they may be facing; it becomes more challenging for activists and journalists to report on and respond to crucial developments in a case, and ultimately nigh impossible for anyone the CCP is set on imprisoning to clear their name. 

This blog aims to shed light on the key steps in the Chinese judicial process, and how they can be subverted as the authorities take advantage of vague language and myriad loopholes in the country’s Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) to prolong the suffering of those they have arbitrarily detained and imprisoned. 

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El pastor Efrén Antonio Vílchez López es una de las cientos de voces independientes que el gobierno nicaragüense se apresura a silenciar. 

Posted on by cswpress in español, Latin America ES, Nicaragua ES

El 15 de mayo de 2022, el pastor evangélico-protestante Efrén Antonio Vílchez López fue golpeado y detenido al salir de la funeraria donde trabajaba en San Rafael del Sur, municipio a 50 km al suroeste de la Capital Managua.  

No se le informó de los cargos que se le imputaban, y su familia no supo su paradero durante tres días. Permaneció recluido en la Comisaría de la Policía Nacional de San Rafael del Sur durante más de dos semanas y luego fue trasladado al Sistema Penitenciario Nacional Jorge Navarro, conocido como “La Modelo”. 

Durante su detención, las autoridades no le proporcionaron al pastor Vílchez López, quien padece diabetes e hipertensión, la insulina diaria que necesitaba, lo que puso en peligro su vida y lo obligó a ser trasladado a una clínica para recibir urgentemente tratamiento médico. 

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Pastor Efrén Antonio Vílchez López is one of hundreds of independent voices the Nicaraguan government is desperate to silence

Posted on by cswpress in Latin America, Nicaragua

On 15 May 2022 Protestant Christian Pastor Efrén Antonio Vílchez López was beaten and detained as he was leaving the funeral home where he worked in San Rafael del Sur, a town and municipality 50km south-west of the Nicaraguan capital Managua.  

He was not told on what charges he was being arrested, and his family were kept unaware of his whereabouts for three days. He was held at the San Rafael del Sur National Police Station for over two weeks, and then transferred to the notorious Jorge Navarro National Penitentiary System known as ‘La Modelo’. 

While he was in detention the authorities did not provide Pastor Vílchez López, who is diabetic and hypertensive, with his required daily insulin, which ultimately proved life-threatening and resulted in him being sent to a clinic for urgent medical treatment.  

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Where are they? Carmen María Sáenz Martínez and Lesbia del Socorro Gutiérrez Poveda are prisoners of a regime solely interested in its own survival

Posted on by cswpress in Latin America, Nicaragua

At 6am on 10 August 2024, fifteen police officers wearing ski masks and carrying AK-47s arrested 49-year-old Carmen María Sáenz Martínez at her home in Lomas de Santo Tomas in Matagalpa City, Nicaragua.

Two hours later police in two patrol cars detained Carmen’s colleague Lesbia del Socorro Gutiérrez Poveda, age 58, at the Guadalupana Farm in Samulali in the San Ramón Municipality.

Both women worked with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Matagalpa, formerly led by the now exiled Bishop Rolando José Álvarez Lagos, who spent nearly a year and a half in prison before he was expelled to the Vatican in January 2024. Lesbia had worked with the diocese’s rural and urban credit project since 2006, and Carmen as a justice promoter in marriage annulment cases since 2018.

Their families have not heard from them since.

Continue reading “Where are they? Carmen María Sáenz Martínez and Lesbia del Socorro Gutiérrez Poveda are prisoners of a regime solely interested in its own survival” →