From Danwei Blog:
Qiu Xinghua, the mass-murder who was executed last week, wrote his memoirs while in prison. According to his lawyer, this was intended to be a “negative example” to readers, and Qiu was worried that if he were found to be not guilty by reason of insanity, sales would be suffer. Publishing his story of the events surrounding his slaying of ten people at a Daoist temple would certainly be controversial, and it’s not hard to imagine the wrangling over royalties that would ensue.
But the issue won’t come up. An article in Tuesday’s Mirror notes that Qiu’s conviction stripped him of his political rights, which include not only the right to vote and hold office, serve in government, and occupy a leadership position in a state-owned enterprise (all of which are useless to him now, anyway), but also the right to freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, procession, and demonstration. According to the lawyer quoted in the article, since Qiu’s right to freedom of the press was revoked, his autobiography cannot be published, even posthumously.[Full Text]
