Witnesses held as China quake trial starts

A famous Chinese artist was roughed up and reporters and witnesses detained on Wednesday, the first day of the trial of a Chinese activist who investigated the death toll from last year’s devastating Sichuan earthquake.

Tan Zuoren is formally accused of defaming the Communist Party in emailed comments about 1989’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators around Tiananmen square. His trial in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, adjourned without a verdict on Wednesday, said his lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang.

Tan’s supporters and Amnesty International say he was detained because he planned to issue an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the Sichuan earthquake, in which more than 80,000 people died.

Contemporary artist Ai Weiwei, who travelled to Chengdu to testify, said he and 10 other volunteers were woken by police entering their hotel before dawn on Wednesday, beaten up and prevented from leaving until after the trial adjourned.