Parents of Missing Children Arrested for Prostitution

Parents of Missing Children Arrested for Prostitution
By staff reporter Zhao Hejuan and Shangguan Jiaoming 06.28.2011 19:50

Yang Libing and Zhou Yinghe have been arrested on charges of prostitution by local authorities

(Beijing) – Yang Libing and Zhou Yinghe, two leading petitioners from a child-trafficking case in Hunan Province, were arrested on June 22 for prostitution, witnesses said.

The two will be under police custody for 15 days as part of the standard penalty for prostitution, according to local authorities.

At the time of their arrest, Yang and Zhou were with a group of parents that were also seeking to petition a child-trafficking case in Shaoyang, Hunan Province.

Yang's younger brother told Caixin that his brother was being framed. "Shaoyang police have not been prosecuting prostitution cases recently. How could my brother be arrested for that reason? Someone wants to restrict his activities," he said.

An investigative report by Caixin in May detailed a child-trafficking system run by local family planning officials. Yang's daughter was abducted by authorities in 2005 after they were unable to pay a 6,000 yuan fine, based on fabricated regulations by local family planning authorities.

Hunan provincial government already sent a team to investigate the child-trafficking case following Caixin report and the investigation result is yet to be released.