Calgary woman faced with China's human rights record after husband jailed husband, record, human, woman, Calgary

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Calgary woman faced with China's human rights record after husband jailed
Merita Ilo, The Canadian Press

When she's not talking to lawyers and Western journalists, Karen Patterson is busy sending tweets and Facebook updates on the latest developments in the case of her husband, a Chinese artist who's been sitting in a Beijing prison cell for nearly six months.

Wu Yuren, 39, who led a daring march toward Tiananmen Square earlier this year, is facing trial for a scuffle with police that his supporters say is revenge for his outspoken work.

His Canadian wife is doing everything she can now to draw international attention to her husband’s plight. She's written to Chinese authorities and to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking for help to win his freedom.

"It's been very difficult. In fact, in the beginning, I wasn’t really sure what to do," Patterson told The Canadian Press in a phone interview from Beijing.

Yuren's bizarre ordeal began last May, when he accompanied his friend, Yang Licai, to a police station to file a complaint about his landlord.

Once there, the two men were detained and Licai, who was released 10 days later, told Patterson that her husband had been dragged by four or five police officers, his shirt pulled over his head, into another room from where his painful screams could still be heard.

Yuren later told his lawyer he'd been beaten, and showed him several bumps on his head and facial scars.

He was charged with "obstructing public affairs with violence" and is accused of assaulting an officer inside the police station and injuring two of the officer’s fingers. If convicted, he could face up to three years in jail.

Patterson believes the detention and the charges are the authorities' payback for her husband's involvement in the artists's rally back in February.

"It started about a year ago with trying to organize a walk in order to bring attention to a situation where the artists had rented art studios and the government wanted to knock them down, after reneging on a contract without compensations," said Patterson.

"On Feb. 22, the development company sent in a group of thugs with bars and beat the people that they ran into, which were some of the artists that were still living there ... and smashed their cars, and smashed the doors of the studios."

So the next day they took to Chang’an Avenue, which runs through the storied Tiananmen Square, for a peaceful 15-minute march, she said.

There's another reason human rights activists say they believe Chinese authorities targeted the talented artist, who has also taught Chinese contemporary art in Calgary and Saskatoon.

Yuren signed Charter 08, the public demand for democratic reforms written by the now-imprisoned critic and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Many of those who signed the manifesto have been interrogated by authorities.

For Patterson, who moved to China from Calgary 16 years ago, dealing with the Communist country's legal system has not been easy.

"There’s a community out there that people don’t know about until they get into a human rights issue themselves," said Patterson, who turned to internationally known artist and activist Ai Weiwei, for advice.

"He gave me some suggestions on how to go about working at it instead of just sitting on the side and letting it go the way it might normally go ... and it probably wasn’t going to have a positive outcome."

She hired two lawyers to defend her husband, who appeared in court Wednesday for the first time.

"I was the only person allowed in other than the staff, even though it was an open trial. I wasn’t allowed to bring in an interpreter."

Patterson said a police video that was entered as evidence in court was supposed to show her husband being aggressive and assaulting officers inside the station.

"Instead, (it) showed my husband yelling out the numbers on the policemen's badges and how they had taken his cellphone without a warrant.

"And there was one point where he was telling them not to touch him."

Yuren's lawyers protested that the police video had been edited. The judge ordered the prosecutors to provide the original video, and the court was adjourned.

"I think any sort of sentencing for this is a travesty," said Patterson.

A crowd of friends and supporters, including Weiwei, gathered outside the court house Wednesday to show their solidarity with the couple.

"We come here for support," Weiwei said. "We want to be part of it."

The Canadian Embassy in Beijing has been very helpful, but keep in mind that Wu is a Chinese citizen, not a Canadian citizen, Patterson said, without providing further details.

Police have not made any public comment on the case.

Patterson's friends and family, meantime, are worried she could be targeted next.
"But I don’t think they would do anything to me. Perhaps if I was a Chinese wife, I would have been put under house arrest already if I had tried to speak to the media," she said.

Patterson said the ordeal has been especially hard on their daughter, Hannah.
"She's six and doesn’t quite understand exactly why she can’t see her dad. I’ve tried to explain it as best would be for a six year old. But it’s still hard."