Rights activist fears for family

WASHINGTON: Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng accused Beijing authorities of cracking down on members of his family on Tuesday, calling on US President Barack Obama to intervene.

Mr Chen, who emigrated to the United States last year following his dramatic escape from house arrest, told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington that several members of his family had been harassed since he left his homeland.

The 41-year-old rights activist cited the prominent case of his nephew Chen Kegui, 33, who had been detained and ‘‘tortured’’ before being sentenced to three years and three months in prison without any access to a lawyer.

Chen Kegui was sentenced for ‘‘intentionally inflicting injuries’’ to local Communist Party officials who had stormed into his home during a raid.

The rights group Freedom Now lodged a petition with the UN on Tuesday urging the release of Chen Kegui, saying his life and health was ‘‘in serious danger’’.

Chen Guangcheng, meanwhile, said other members of his family, including a four-year-old nephew, were subjected to surveillance and harassment on a regular basis.

He said his elder brother was physically attacked and had the tires of his car slashed. Local authorities paid a gang of thugs to wreck the garden of the family home, hurling stones, bottles and dead animals into the property, he added.

A self-taught lawyer who has been blind since childhood, Mr Chen angered authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong by exposing abuses under China’s one-child policy.

He was sentenced to four years in prison and was later placed under house arrest.