Truth Commission to revoke expulsion of Chinese tortured under dictatorship
Pictures of the seven Chinese citizens, taken following their arrest
Nine Chinese citizens tortured and sentenced to death for subversion by the Brazilian military government in 1964 will likely have their expulsion from the country revoked, according to a statement made on Friday (Sep 26) by the Rio de Janeiro Truth Commission. After concluding the case was nothing more than persecution against China's economic and political regime, the commission also urges the Brazilian government to return to China a total of nearly $53 thousand, which had been confiscated as the Chinese were arrested.
The group of victims comprised nine high government officials and a journalist. They had been invited to come to Brazil in a business mission, were arrested on April 3, 1964, while staying in an apartment in Rio de Janeiro.
After being taken, the Chinese were tortured by the Department of Political and Social Order (Dops) with kicks, punches, cigarette burns—says Ju Quingdong, 84, in his testimony. “Police officers shut me alone in a torture chamber. They used the tip of a cigarette to scorch my legs and they also trod on my stomach,” he reported.
Quingdong was a journalist from the news agency Xinhua and had been invited by the government to follow the Chinese delegation. Even after what he had been subjected to in Brazil, he attempted to pay other visits to the country with his family in 1997, but failed to be granted a visa.
Eny Moreira, the victims' lawyer
On presenting what happened to the visitors, Eny Moreira, their lawyer in 1964, alongside jurist Sobral Pinto, described the events in detail, which included seven trials and the forging of evidence aimed at incriminating the Asians, like poisoned needles and guided bombs.
“The pretext for [their] arrest, sentence, and expulsion was to convince the public opinion that the overthrown government had summoned guerilla and sabotage experts in order to materialize what the military referred to as communism,” Moreira argued.
Brazil's Foreign Ministry is currently considering annulling the expulsion and returning the money seized to Chinese government, which, after adjustments for time, may add up to $205 thousand.
Details on the detention and the trials involving the Chinese were amply recounted in the book Vaso dos Nove Chineses (literally “Vase of the Nine Chinese Men”), by journalists Ciça Gueges and Murilo Fiúza. For six months, the authors analyzed documents from the National Archive and Dops's old files, in Rio de Janeiro.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Truth Commission to revoke expulsion of Chinese tortured under dictatorship
