Prague, April 12 (CTK) – The Czech Republic, along with another ten countries, has called on China to investigate the reports that imprisoned human rights activists are tortured there, the server Sinopsis.cz has written.
In a 2015, an action against lawyers and human rights activists occurred during which hundreds of people were arrested. Some of them have been sentenced to very long prison terms, the server said.
The EU representation in China asked to check the treatment of the detained persons earlier.
The U.S. Department of State asked the Chinese authorities to release the activists last year.
At the end of February, Czech ambassador to China Bedrich Kopecky, along with representatives of Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Belgium, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany and Sweden, sent a letter to the Chinese Ministry of State Security.
The letter was not published, but the countries demand that the Chinese authorities check the news about the maltreatment of prisoners and that they should not be held in solitary confinement, Sinopsis.cz writes.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has called the letter a violation of the Chinese right to court independence.
The Czech Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Kopecky signed the letter following the instructions of the ministry.
The letter was prompted by the Delegation of the EU to Beijing, it added.
“This is a routine step with which the EU warns of the human rights situation in China,” Irena Valentova, from the Foreign Ministry press department, has told journalists.
“In accordance with long-standing priorities of the Czech Republic’s human rights policy, especially support for civil society and human rights defenders and support for the building of institutions of the rule of law, we decided to join the step,” Valentova said.
Last year, a hot debate was triggered by a statement of President Milos Zeman, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and the heads of the two houses of parliament, Milan Stech (Senate) and Jan Hamacek (Chamber of Deputies), all three from the CSSD, drafted by the Foreign Ministry.
Reacting to the October meetings of some Czech politicians with the Tibetan Dalai Lama, they vowed to respect China’s territorial integrity and proclaimed that the Czech foreign policy line towards China would not change.
