The facility, once known as the Beijing International Prison (Chinese: 北京市国际监狱) is comparable in function to Russia's Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, housing politically sensitive prisoners in proximity to the national capital.
Some prisoners have been moved to the BSSBDC after serving time in a BSSB black jail of the Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) program, an extrajudicial regime of secret detention which facilitates the "disappearing" of individuals – often foreigners – charged with endangering state security.[3][4]
Prominent Chinese journalist, sentenced to six years in prison on November 10, 1994, for “illegally providing state secrets to institutions outside [China’s] borders” in a series of four articles in Overseas Chinese Daily.[5][6] While held in the BSSB Detention Center, she was awarded the 1997 UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize. In the years since her release, she repeatedly served additional sentences handed down by Beijing courts.[7]
2 October 1993
Xiao Biguang
Chinese dissident involved in the Beijing Protestant Christian community who helped file a lawsuit on behalf of the Jesus Family, a Chinese Pentacostal group. Arrested on a blank warrant, he was belatedly charged with "swindling" after authorities discovered the ID card issued by his employer listed the wrong academic degree. Xiao spent pre-trial detention in the BSSBDC with no outside contact beyond a single one-hour meeting with his lawyer.[8]
Xu, a reporter; and Jin, a geologist and writer; and two others were sentenced to ten years on charges of inciting subversion of state power for their involvement in a study group discussing political reforms in a case that made global headlines.[9][10][11] According to Reuters, by 2009 both had been transferred to other facilities after Xu reportedly developed mental illness and Jin contracted a debilitating intestinal disease.[12]
Chinese-American Mathematician and dissident who was jailed and later sentenced to death on charges of espionage and illegal entry upon arriving in China in defiance of an entry ban issued by the government for his involvement in the Tiananmen Square protests. On May 28, 2003, a United Nations working group on arbitrary detention ruled that Yang's detention constituted a violation of international law.[13]
Chinese engineer and dissident who served to ten years in prison for inciting subversion of state power for publishing pro-democracy material online using his Yahoo! account after the company provided Chinese authorities information used to identify him. Held in the BSSBDC from the time of his arrest in September 2002 until May 2004.[14]
Chinese investigative journalist for the The New York Times Beijing bureau. He was arrested 17 September 2004, on charges of fraud and revealing state secrets. He was released on 15 September 2007 after being found guilty of fraud but not of revealing state secrets. He is believed to be the first person to be acquitted of charges of revealing state secrets in China.[15]
Chinese reporter for Bloomberg News' Beijing bureau, arrested for reporting during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic.[19] Released 14 June 2022.
7 December 2020
References
^"迫害法轮大法修炼者的恶人单位: 北京市国家安全局" [Beijing Municipal State Security Bureau]. Minghui.org (in Chinese). 2021-06-16. Archived from the original on 2023-06-08. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
