The spouse of a Chinese language dissident from the northwestern area of Xinjiang jailed for subversion after standing up for Uyghurs says she has obtained what might be a forcibly written letter from him, prompting fears of “excessive persecution” in jail.
Zhang Haitao, an outspoken critic of the ruling Chinese language Communist Occasion’s remedy of the principally Muslim Uyghur ethnic group, is serving a 19-year jail time period at Xinjiang’s Shaya Jail for “incitement to subvert state energy” and spying expenses.
He was handed the sentence by the Intermediate Folks’s Court docket in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang, on Jan. 15, 2016.
Even earlier than the pandemic, which has led the authorities lock down prisons and ban face-to-face conferences, Zhang had solely been allowed three household visits through the first 5 years of his sentence.
Since then, his spouse Li Aijie, who fled China together with her son after being harassed and threatened by native authorities, has solely obtained a handful of letters from Zhang.
The latest letter got here after a spot of 1 yr and eight months, and did not look like real, Li instructed RFA.
“The plain distinction this time is that he wrote within the letter that he was consuming very properly, and in very particular phrases; he talked about beef, lamb, hen, milk and eggs, and so on,” Li mentioned.
“I do not assume a variety of peculiar individuals in China eat that properly [outside of prison],” she mentioned. “It was a bit exhausting to consider.”
“I feel the jail authorities compelled him to put in writing these issues,” Li mentioned.
The letter, dated June 27, 2022, is simply the fifth Zhang has despatched to his household since his sentence started.
In it, Zhang additionally says he has good clothes, and tells his household to not attempt to go to.
“The letter I obtained mentioned there was no want to go to him,” she mentioned, including that Zhang has frolicked in solitary confinement.
“We’ve beforehand confirmed that he wasn’t even allowed outdoors for train,” Li mentioned. “Why would not he wish to see his household? A minimum of his sister, and to learn the way we’re doing within the U.S.”
The letter indicators off with one thing much more surprising, Li mentioned.
“The weirdest issues is that he writes: ‘Because of the social gathering, to the federal government, and to the nation’,” Li mentioned. “That is simply not credible.”
“The entire motive he went to jail within the first place was for scolding and criticizing the nation and its authorities,” she mentioned. “He’s an harmless man, [wrongfully] convicted: how may he be thanking them?”
“It was very painful and uncomfortable for me to learn that line,” Li mentioned. “The Zhang Haitao I do know is a tricky man who does not crack.”
“Within the absence of maximum persecution, it will be unthinkable for him to put in writing this sort of self-violation,” she mentioned.
‘They do not need him to come back out alive’
Zhang’s sister Zhang Qingzhen final visited her brother in April 2018, she instructed RFA on Thursday. No visits from members of the family have been allowed since, regardless of a number of requests made by Zhang Qingzhen.
“I requested for a video name [after the pandemic], they usually mentioned there was no tools for video calls between Xinjiang and Henan,” she mentioned.
“So I mentioned, ‘OK, I will come to Xinjiang for the video name’, however they mentioned no, and instructed me to not come,” Zhang Qingzhen mentioned. “Then I known as the jail bureau they usually instructed me I could not have a video name.”
“It is a lot more durable now.”
Zhang Qingzhen fears that the rationale for the denial of household visits is that Zhang has been tortured, and the authorities don’t desire the information to get out.
She additionally fears they do not plan on letting her brother out of jail alive.
“He has been held in solitary confinement … Now he is in a state the place he cannot die, however he isn’t dwelling both,” she mentioned. “They do not need him to come back out alive.”
Repeated calls to Shaya Jail went unconnected on Thursday.
At Zhang’s trial, the prosecution cited 69 posts to the Chinese language social media platform WeChat and 205 Twitter posts and retweets, as proof of “incitement to subvert state energy.”
Li, who gave beginning to the couple’s son shortly after he was jailed, and was left with no revenue, was counting on relations for monetary assist, she instructed RFA on the time.
However ChinaAid, which helped to arrange her escape from China, mentioned she had confronted abuse inside her household in addition to threats from officers.
Zhang, 46, was initially detained on June 26, 2015 on suspicion of “selecting quarrels and stirring up bother,” however the expenses towards him have been later modified to the extra severe expenses of subversion and spying.
The courtroom mentioned it had handed down an extended jail time period as a result of Zhang had “colluded” with abroad organizations.
Reported by Qiao Lengthy for RFA’s Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
