AFP - The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, outspoken government critic, was arrested when he was about to board a plane for Hong Kong and police raided his studio outside Beijing, have announced its employees on Twitter.
The arrest of Ai Weiwei, 53, comes just days after he announced his intention to move abroad to avoid being harassed by the time the authorities have further strengthened their crackdown on people criticizing the regime.On Tuesday, he spoke German.
Have announced in mid-February the cancellation of his first major exhibition held in China in March, organizers had explained to him that the timing was inappropriate and they wanted to reschedule.
According to messages on Twitter accounts assistant to the artist, police visited his studio in the District Caochangdi equipped with a search warrant.
Eight of his assistants were taken by police for questioning while his wife was under police surveillance at their homes, according to these same sources.
The mobile phone of the artist was off Sunday and did not answer the phone at his studio in Beijing.
In January, the artist's studio in the suburbs of Shanghai had been demolished. Ai was briefly placed under house arrest last November for trying to "celebrate" with her fans announcing the forced demolition.
Have defended many humanitarian causes and won renown with a broad inquiry into the collapses of school buildings during the earthquake in Sichuan province (southwest) in 2008, apparently related to corruption.
