Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Zhang Qing wants the United Nations to probe the "cruel and inhumane" treatment inflicted in prison upon her husband, Guo Feixiong. Mr Guo, who has been in custody for the past nine months, revealed to the world the (unlucky) fight by the residents of Taishi village against the corruption and violence of the local Communist Party.

In a letter sent to Human Rights in China to be forwarded to Manfred Novak, UN special rapporteur on torture, she accused interrogators of torturing her husband to extract a confession, including the use of electric shocks to his genitals.  Human Rights in China said police tactics have included sleep deprivation and shackling Guo's arms and legs to a bed for weeks at a time.

Guo Feixiong, also known as Yang Maodong, was arrested in September 2006 and is to go on trial next Friday on a charge of "illegal business activity" in connection with a book he edited about a political scandal in Shenyang. He maintains his innocence.

In reality experts believe that his case is connected to his support for the residents of Taishi village in Guangdong province who tried to fight their corrupt village chief and local Communist Party leaders, providing legal assistance and publishing articles online denouncing the situation and the violent methods used by the police against the population.

Mo Shaoping, aide to the attorney representing Guo (Yang) since he was arrested, said that police interrogated him for more than 11 hours every day from September 14 to the 28 allowing him only one hour sleep.

According to the Human Rights Watch in China his treatment got worse once he was moved to a detention centre in Shenyang.

Before his arrest, Guo was briefly detained last year for attempting to organise a hunger strike to protest against his beatings in Guangzhou by thugs believed to have been hired by Taishi village officials.