Chinese police say they have “firm evidence” that the detained artist-activist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) avoided tax, adding that he has begun “confessing,” a Hong Kong newspaper under Beijing’s control said yesterday, drawing a denunciation from Ai’s sister.
The Wen Wei Po newspaper said it had the firmest details yet of the accusations that Chinese police are making against Ai, whose secretive detention this month drew an outcry from human rights groups and Western governments, alarmed by the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign against dissent.
Burly, bearded Ai Weiwei was detained at Beijing airport on April 3.
He had a hand in designing the Bird’s Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and has juggled an international art career with colorful campaigns against government censorship and political restrictions, often using the Internet.
His family has said the government’s assertion that Ai is suspected of “economic crimes” is a pretext for hitting back at his activism.
Citing unnamed sources, the Wen Wei Po said investigators had gathered “a large amount of evidence that Ai Weiwei is suspected of avoiding taxes, and the sums are quite large.”
The Wen Wei Po is a Chinese-language paper published in Hong Kong by mainland authorities and is sometimes used to make Beijing’s case on contentious issues.
“As the investigation has deepened, the public security authorities have accumulated quite solid witnesses, documentary and circumstantial evidence and Ai Weiwei has had quite a good attitude in cooperating with the investigation and has begun to confess about the issues,” the report said.
The report also said Ai was suspected of bigamy and “spreading pornography on the Internet.”
Ai’s sister, Gao Ge (高閣), said police had given his family no information about his whereabouts or the accusations against him and the Hong Kong newspaper was being used to vilify him without giving Ai a chance to respond.
“This is not evidence. It’s using a small paper to push their own position without giving Ai Weiwei any fair redress,” Gao said by telephone.
“It’s clearly against the law to hold him for so long without notifying us,” she said.
The bigamy accusation, she said, was “absurd”, and airing other charges without allowing Ai to respond was grossly unfair.
Yesterday, Jin Bianling (金變玲), the wife of Jiang Tianyong (江天勇), a Beijing human rights lawyer taken into custody nearly two months ago by police, issued a written plea for information about his whereabouts and why he had been detained.
“It’s been 54 days since he was taken away. He’s never disappeared for so long before,” Jin said by telephone.
“It’s very hard not knowing anything about his situation,” she said.
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