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Ten months have passed since my husband
Hada was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment for allegedly
involved in "splitting the country and spying". During
this period, Hada has been consistently denied medical treatment
for his illness and has been living under subhuman conditions.
To make things worse, he had recently been physically abused
by prison inmates due to lack of security measures in prison.
As Hada's family members, we are deeply concerned about his
safety and the inhumane treatment he gets in the prison. We
believe this is a serious violation of basic humanitarian principles
as well as relevant Chinese laws regarding treatment of prisoners.
We are writing to you to draw your attention to and request
immediate action on the following matters:
1. Hada needs immediate medical attention and he should be
allowed to seek medical treatment outside the prison. Over
the years, Hada had suffered from multiple health conditions.
He had to take a year off from college to receive treatment
for a lung disease. He continued to have health problems after
graduation. He was diagnosed with cholelithiasis and heart
condition soon after his arrest. After being transferred to
Chifeng Prison, he often felt pain in his liver and developed
dropsy due to lack of nutrition. Hada and I made numerous
verbal requests for medical treatment of his illness, yet
all pleas have been ignored. Hada has never had a medical
exam since being transferred to Chifeng, let alone proper
medical treatment. Out of desperation, I am appealing to you
once more: please allow Hada to have a medical exam immediately
so that his illness can be treated without further delay.
We believe this is a very basic humanitarian plea! According
to the Code of Criminal Procedures, Article 103, "inmates
suffering from serious illness who need medical treatment
outside the prison system should be allowed to do so".
We request that you grant him this basic legal right of his.
2. We strongly urge the prison administration to investigate
and punish those individuals who carried out the physical
violence against Hada. We believe it is not a simple coincidence
that Hada was physically abused by other inmates in November.
Since his sentence, he has been sharing a prison room with
twenty other convicted felons. One day in November, while
he was having lunch in the prison cafeteria, Hada was struck
by other inmates using bamboo sticks. This gives us a glimpse
into Hada's surroundings. On behalf of Hada's family, I strongly
condemn the barbaric act carried out by the prison inmates
against Hada and I strongly urge the prison authority to take
legal action against Hada's assailant and punish those responsible.
I also urge the prison authority to take immediate action
(such as reducing the number of inmates sharing a room) to
prevent such incident in the future.
We do not believe Hada's sentence is justified. We have already
appealed to the superior Court of Inner Mongolian Autonomous
Region. We also have plans to appeal to higher level court
systems until justice is served for Hada. In the meantime,
we urge you to follow humanitarian principles and relevant
Chinese laws, take our appeals seriously and resolve the matter
as soon as possible.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Xinna, Hada's wife
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Changing
Inner Mongolia: Pastoral Mongolian Society and the Chinese State (Oxford
Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)
