By Martin Banks - 17th July 2008
French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been criticised for agreeing to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
His decision, reiterated at the recent G8 meeting in Japan, was branded by Daniel Cohn-Bendit, joint leader of the Greens group in parliament as “irresponsible towards the numerous political prisoners held in Chinese prisons.”
The veteran MEP said, “The total number of political prisoners in China runs into the thousands. Some individuals have been the subject of European parliament resolutions, but are yet to be released.”
He raises his concerns in a letter to Sarkozy and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner.
The letter highlights the cases of 12 so-called political prisoners who include journalists, activists, lawyers and authors.
It also contains a list of prisoners drawn up by the "China Olympics 2008 Collective", an association of nine human rights groups, as well as the list of the NGO "Human Rights in China".
Sarkozy had initially threatened to join those, who include parliament’s president Hans-Gert Pottering, who say they will boycott the showpiece opening ceremony in Beijing next month.
A separate letter to Sarkozy from Human Rights in China says the cases "reflect the range of individuals in China subjected to arbitrary detention" and are representative of "numerous" other cases of people imprisoned "simply for trying to exercise his or her human rights."
France is the current holder of the EU’s rotating six-month presidency.
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