Dharamsala, November 16: Chinese police in Beijing on Friday evening detained Zhao Lianhai, a parent of a victim of melamine-tainted milk powder and a core organiser of affected families nationwide, according to Hong Kong-based Human Rights in China (HRIC).
Zhao’s wife, Li Xuemei, told HRIC that at around 10:30 p.m. Friday, about a dozen police officers from Beijing’s Daxing District Public Security Bureau and Tuanhe substation came to their home and presented a summons for Zhao’s detention.
When Zhao refused to go with them, as the summons did not state a cause, the police officers hastily filled in “provoking an incident” in the summons, HRIC said in a press statement.
They then handcuffed Zhao and took him away. The remaining policemen, in uniform and plainclothes, searched the house and took away more than ten items, including two computers, a video recorder, a camera, a USB drive, and an address book.
After his son became sick from tainted milk powder, Zhao organized a “Milk Powder Group” on the Chinese social networking website, QQ, and launched the group’s website, www.jieshibaobao.com “babies with kidney stones”), in order to facilitate communications among fellow parents and seek compensation from the Chinese Dairy Association and the manufacturers of the tainted milk powder.
As a result, Zhao has been followed and threatened, and was previously detained, HRIC said.
