Journalist held for illegal detention of demolition worker

A journalist was taken into custody on Sunday on suspicion of illegal detention, after he and some villagers held a staff member of a forced demolition team against his will on Friday in Pingdu, Shandong Province.

The case is still under investigation, according to the official Sina Weibo account of the local police.

Chen Baocheng, a journalist with Caixin Media, was seized by local police on Saturday, together with seven local residents. Chen's Weibo account read that Chen's wife has hired two lawyers to handle the case on Saturday.

Li Huiqing, one of the two, had already met with Chen in the local detention house on Sunday and had submitted the application for the guarantor pending trial.

The arrest happened after eight people reportedly held up an excavator at Jingouzi village, Pingdu on Friday, when it was about to dig up the site of a local house that was illegally torn down on July 4. Earlier complaints to the police about the demolition got no reply.

According to posts before his arrest, Chen claimed to have contacted the local police after holding up the "suspect involved in the destruction of personal property on July 4" but received no response.

Caixin Media released a statement around Sunday noon that after hearing of the case, they attempted to contact their journalist but were unsuccessful. When they contacted local police, the police chose not to comment on the case.

Chen's wife turned down the interview request from the Global Times and his lawyers could not be reached by press time.