Farmer who reported Anhui birdflu arrested
It is suspected that the charges were mounted against him to stop him from reporting. In other cases, a disciplinary commissioner was accused of drug and prostitution related charges and a dissident ecologist of terrorism.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/SCMP) A farmer who reported an outbreak of bird flu in Anhui has been jailed for three and a half years and ordered to pay a fine of 30,000 yuan. He was found guilty of deceit and blackmail. In China, an increasing number of "whistle-blower heroes" are being dragged to court.
Until last year, Qiao Songju was a "hero farmer", nominated by national television for the personality of the year award. Last week, the Intermediate People's Court of Gaoyou City in Jiangsu found him guilty of fraud against the state and of blackmail over the past two years.
The court said the farmer bought substandard vaccines from veterinary institutes in Jiangsu and Shanghai, asked them to issue inflated invoices and then claimed the expenses from the Ministry of Agriculture. Qiao was also said to have threatened a firm producing vaccines in Jiangsu, blackmailing it into giving him 800 yuan (around 80 euros) in exchange for not denouncing the low quality of the vaccines.
Qiao was also alleged to have posed as a representative of the Agriculture Ministry while it was investigating a firm in Fujian said to be selling substandard vaccines. He was charged with demanding 14,000 yuan (1,400 euros) from the institute to cover his expenses, threatening to report it if it refused.
Qiao's lawyer, Kong Weizhao, said his client denied the allegations and would appeal to a higher court.
On October 14 last year, Qiao's father told him more than 200 geese had died of unknown causes on a friend's farm in Liangying. Fearing a local government cover-up, Qiao reported what had happened to the Ministry of Agriculture. His report led to a ministry investigation and an announcement that 2,100 birds in the village were suspected of having bird flu. Days later, the local police detained him on charges of blackmail.
This is not the first case of its kind, when people who denounce corruption or violence are in turn accused of crimes and submitted to a campaign aimed at stripping them of their credibility.
On 26 June, Huang Dongju, director of a disciplinary committee in Shangrao (Jiangxi), was arrested for drug possession and for visiting prostitutes. Huang had been awarded the highest honour by the State Council for his fight against corruption and was considered to be a star candidate for the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
And last May Peng Ming, a dissident ecologist who fled to the United States and then returned to China, was condemned to life imprisonment by a Wuhan court for terrorism, kidnapping and possessing false banknotes.
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18/09/2004
