| Ai Weiwei threatened with bigamy charge |
BEIJING Chinese police told dissident artist Ai Weiwei on Thursday he could face bigamy and pornography charges and barred him from travel, despite lifting strict bail conditions impo-sed after his detention.
Ai, who left his house on Thursday for the first time in a year without having to report his whereabouts to police, was held for 81 days without charge in April 2011 mainly in solitary confinement until his conditional release last year.
“If getting back half of my freedom means I’m free, then I’m a free person,” Ai said. “But they’re restricting my ability to travel and still trying to fabricate crimes.”
The threats against Ai underscore Beijing’s efforts to muzzle China’s most prominent critic and are likely to spark an outcry among his supporters and the international community, which has taken a close interest in his case.
China is sensitive to any threat to Communist Party rule and clamps down on all dissent, illustrated by the recent furore over the flight from house arrest by blind activist Chen Guangcheng.
Ai said the restrictions of his bail, linked to economic crimes, were lifted on Thursday but police said he could not travel as he is “suspected of other crimes” including pornography, bigamy and exch-ange of foreign currency.
Ai said police brought up a photograph that Ai had taken in 2010, sitting next to four women, all five of them naked, in a studio pose. Police told Ai that a file of the photograph had been opened online more than 1,000 times, and that meant he was effectively spreading pornography, he said.
“We never even touched each other,” Ai said. “It’s nothing. Nobody will say that’s pornography. I asked them why this is pornography. They said under our policy, if there’s nudity, if people try to open a file many times, like over 1,000 times, that’s pornography. They have a law like that, which is ridiculous.”
Ai, who is married, also denies the charge of bigamy. He openly meets a girlfriend and has a three-year-old son from that relationship.
Reuters
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