If they had tried to force me to talk, I let them have said nothing

Reached by telephone, Hu Jia told on Monday morning April 30, Le Monde, the detention of 24 hours between Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, after meeting the previous days, with Chen Guangcheng, the blind dissident refugee at the U.S. Embassy since Thursday. Aged 39, released in June 2011 after three and a half years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power", and always deprived of political rights, but he considers Hu Jia is free to speak, on social networks, or in the media, because it's "constitutional right".

Two intermediate helped Chen in his flight: an intellectual Beijing, Guo Yushan, and activist based in Nanjing, He Peirong. Both are currently unreachable and were arrested. The first anime Transition Institute and the NGO had participated with Chen Guangcheng to investigate the violence of the one-child policy in Linyi (Shandong) in 2005. He has continued to support the dissident is blind and had published in 2011, a petition consists of several video messages of Chinese intellectuals calling for his release.

He Peirong (whose nickname was Pearl on the Internet), a young English teacher in Nanjing has a passion for the cause of the lawyer barefoot. She has traveled several times around the village of Dongshigu, home to Chen and his family, organizing a "web monitor" of his clashes with the guards through the surfers who were harassing the local police to force it to intervene. It was she who went to get Chen to Dongshigu after he scaled the wall of his house Sunday before joining a hiding for several hours. The guards did not notice his escape for several days.

You were arrested for twenty-four hours, how was your detention?

I was taken Saturday to 17 h 30 (on their paper, it says 17 h50), and released at 17 h 50 yesterday afternoon [Sunday]. I was taken to the police office Zhongcang, Dongcheng District in Beijing, but in fact it is the general division of the State Security in charge of the operation (to me they have not said, but I heard their conversation). Their goal is to know when Chen Guangcheng Dongshigu left, how he was found, where he was lodged in Beijing, when he entered the U.S. embassy and when I saw it.

How were you treated?

Initially, they were not very polite. They were two members of the criminal police who interrogated me. They called me for a matter of public safety, but they send police to the criminal! They came up with the arrogant, talking to me like they made me the lesson. I-cons attacked and they calmed down gradually. I have not been tortured, but they have not given me rest when I have cirrhosis and I need to lie. When I learned that the investigation was extended to 24 hours instead of eight hours, I asked for a rest. They were not in agreement. I threw my hat on their desk.

Eventually I found a lounge chair in the corridor on which I slept for 3 hours, no more. But it was cold in the hallway, the lights were on, there were many passages, I have not really been able to sleep. This deprivation of the right to rest is also a form of torture. They asked me for the other [the network]. But I immediately said that Chen was a free citizen, just as He and Guo Yushan Peirong [the two other activists who organized the trip to Beijing Chen Guangcheng].

The general division of the State Security also considers that no law was violated since the departure of Chen Guangcheng Shandong until its entry into the U.S. Embassy. The public authority can not intervene in private law. That's why they lacked solid grounds to question me. So they explained that it was for the "intelligence" and "confirmations". Even if they really tried to force me to speak, I could not tell them. And if I was not forced.

A question surprised me is when they asked me "When is that Chen has been the U.S. ambassador Gary Locke?" "Were you present when Chen Guangcheng saw Gary Locke?" I do not know if that means that the security agents have sources who confirm that they have seen, or if it's just false questions to test me. Since Thursday afternoon, Chen has taken refuge in the American Embassy because it was discovered this afternoon there with Guo Yushan. There was even a car chase. I'm just passed the embassy Friday, but without entering it. The police followed me, so they know it, and it's a stupid question.

In principle you are still deprived of political rights since your release from prison in June 2011. What does this mean?

They told me they summon me because I violated the regulations of the period of deprivation of political rights to which I am compelled. I would not be interviewed by foreign media. They told me that I was interviewed by Radio France-Internationale, while I gave at least ten, even twenty interviews.

I told them that this constraint of not being interviewed by foreign media comes from the Criminal Procedure Code and the regulations of the Ministry of Public Security, but that the Constitution states that I have the right to speak, to criticize , to reveal what I want. I have the right to bring to light human rights abuses by the Chinese local government for example.

Do not you fear reprisals if you continue to express yourself?

I spent three and a half years in prison. I did not want to return. But at the same time, after passing through all that, I'm not afraid anymore. Of course I do not feel well physically, but even if they hold me for a fortnight, compared to 277 days that I experienced in prison, that's nothing! What worries me the most is my wife, my daughter and my mother. They are fretting for me for almost ten years.

The day before yesterday, when I was taken, my daughter saw what was happening. She asked, "Where is he going Dad?" My wife told him that I would have fun by the river. She replied: "That's not true!" We can no longer lie to her. When I was in prison, my wife said to him whenever they visited me, that Daddy was in a kindergarten for adults. She replied: "He has only to change clothes. Then he can go with us". No one had explained to him, but she understands herself. I'm really scared to create a shadow on his heart.

How was your meeting with Chen?

The police asked me when I saw Chen Guangcheng. But they were not interested in the content of our conversation. When I saw him, I was so excited that I still tremble at the thought. He hugged me so hard that it lifted off the ground. Despite his illness: he has blood in the stool since 2006 and has not been treated after his release from prison [September 2010], we are all afraid that it turns into cancer. I also saw injuries on her legs and her body. But his mind is still extraordinarily strong and keeps courage.

Have you heard from Yushan Guo and He Peirong, who helped Chen to escape from home?

I have not managed to contact Guo Yushan He neither Peirong. I am very worried about them. To me, they have not violated any law. They [security guards] have no reason to restrict their freedom. I know this is what is worse, of being "disappeared": I tasted the "disappearance" for forty-one days [in 2006]. I was treated very badly during this period.

Peirong He has been missing for 11 h 10 Friday morning, this is already sixty-two hours. I contacted Guo Yushan for the last time to 22 hours Friday night, then he no longer had a sign from him since Saturday morning. Guo Yushan was followed since Thursday afternoon. He lived in hotels do not have any problems. I greatly admire what they did. They are true brothers.

When Peirong He learned that the phone was turned off by Guo Yushan, she sent a tweet Friday morning to take upon herself the whole responsibility for the operation, knowing all the risks it runs. For his part, to protect, Guo Yushan sent messages via friends saying it was he who organized everything, and it had nothing to see inside!