Artist Ai Weiwei released on bail, Chinese police say

Police say they obtained confession over tax evasion charges from activist, who spent more than two months in detention China has released world-famous artist and political activist Ai Weiwei after more than two and a half months of detention, state media has announced. Beijing police said they released him on bail “because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes” and because he has a chronic illness, Xinhua news agency reported . No mention was made of his whereabouts. Ai’s detention on 3 April sparked an international outcry. He vanished after he was detained by police at Beijing airport. Officials later said he was detained on suspicion of economic crimes, but police did not notify his family of detention. The Xinhua report added: “The decision comes also in consideration of the fact that Ai has repeatedly said he is willing to pay the taxes he evaded, police said. “The Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd, a company Ai controlled, was found to have evaded a huge amount of taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents, police said.” The article gave no details of what has happened to several friends and colleagues of Ai, who went missing shortly after him. Ai’s family said they had only heard of his release through the media. His sister Gao Ge added: “Our family thinks the Xinhua news should be reliable, but the only thing we can do is wait for notification and his return.” “We won’t sleep tonight,” Ai’s mother Gao Ying told NPR. Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch, welcomed news of the 54-year-old artist’s release. “His detention was political and his release is political. It is the result of a huge domestic and international outcry that forced the government to this resolution … I think Beijing realised how damaging it was to hold China’s most famous artist in detention,” he said. Bequelin said he expected Ai to be allowed to return home, but that he would probably not be allowed to travel abroad without official permission and would have to report to police regularly. The Chinese government has said that Ai was arrested for for economic crimes, although his family believe it was retaliation for his social and political activism. Some human rights campaigners thought the economic focus of the allegations was intended to make it harder for other governments to press Ai’s case. But others suggested that it offered officials the possibility of drawing back – as they appear to have done – whereas it would have been too embarrassing to drop political charges. Ai Weiwei China Human rights Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 22, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.