Chinese rights lawyer Yu Wensheng has been imprisoned for more than three years. His wife, Xu Yan, will go to Nanjing prison on April 15 to fight for the legal right to have family visits once a month.
According to Light Media, Xu Yan said on April 13, “On April 15, I will ask to visit Yu Wensheng in Nanjing prison, but I am not sure if I will be allowed to visit him. I will insist that the right to family visits be guaranteed once a month as required by law. At the same time, I will submit three applications in writing: 1. apply to Nanjing prison for family visits once a month as required by law; 2. apply to Nanjing prison to take Yu Wensheng to the hospital for inpatient treatment; 3. apply to Yu Wensheng out of parole family for his treatment. Please pay attention, thank you.”
The company’s brother previously wanted to visit, March 23, Xu Yan revealed: “Yesterday, Yu Wensheng lawyer brother, called me, brother said: he wanted to go to Nanjing prison to see Xiaowen, I said: April Nanjing prison may not let me visit, May 15, let brother and I go together to visit it? My brother said that it was too long, and he only wanted to see Xiaowen by himself. He asked for the phone number of the Nanjing prison police and wanted to make an appointment to visit lawyer Yu Wensheng. I hope the Nanjing prison will humanely agree that brother can see his brother as soon as possible. Thank you all!”
Xu Yan revealed on March 28: “Yu Wensheng lawyer brother said: he explained to the Nanjing prison and fight, want to go to visit Xiaowen alone in recent days, Nanjing prison’s final answer is: can not go these two days, can go to visit on April 15. Thank you all for your attention and help. Please also pay attention to April 15, brother and Xu Yan whether to visit Yu Wensheng lawyer. Thank you.”
As a result, Nanjing Prison asked to go on May 15. Xu Yan sent a message on April 7: “Today, lawyer Yu Wensheng’s brother called Nanjing prison to confirm the visitation time on April 15, and then arrange for the care of his parents and make the ticket purchase. Nanjing prison police to the public number visitation time prevails, and the public number is 2 months visitation once, not in April. I asked for guaranteed visitation rights once a month as stipulated in the prison law. My train ticket has been bought and I will go and demand that Nanjing Prison can guarantee the family’s visitation rights according to the law and humanely.”
Xu Yan’s sister-in-law has been harassed by police because of her fight for visitation rights.
Xu Yan sent a message on April 7: “Yesterday I learned that the police were looking for my sister-in-law, and at night 2 police officers went to my house and knocked on my door. Today, I learned that the promised normal visitation on April 15 has now become a no-no, and I’m facing a fight for legal visitation rights. Maybe because of the pressure, I got very sick today. In addition to being imprisoned for 4 years, lawyer Yu Wensheng is now disabled, so why can’t he get normal legal rights? Why is he still not able to guarantee his legal rights properly? He continues to create suffering? I will go and ask for a visit.”
In 2018, Yu Wensheng had his lawyer’s license revoked by the authorities and was arrested for advocating constitutional reform. On April 19 of the same year, the Xuzhou City Procuratorate in Jiangsu Province officially approved his arrest on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” and “obstructing official business.
In June 2020, the Xuzhou Intermediate Court sentenced Yu Wensheng to four years in prison and three years of deprivation of political rights for “inciting subversion of state power” in the first instance. The sentence runs from January 19, 2018, to March 1, 2022. Yu Wensheng then appealed. According to Yu’s family, the second trial dragged on for six months without movement, only to be suddenly told late last year that a verdict had been reached.
The authorities did not allow Yu to meet with his family until January of this year, three years after his arrest, when Xu Yan went to the Xuzhou City Detention Center on Jan. 14 and asked to meet with him via video that afternoon. Xu Yan said that the two met for about 20 minutes that day, Yu Wensheng was shaved, lost three teeth, right hand trembling and unable to write, she saw very difficult. She applied to be able to meet face-to-face with her husband.
After visiting Yu Wensheng for the first time through the glass in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, on March 15, Xu Yan revealed in an interview with Radio Free Asia that the prison authorities had asked Yu Wensheng to sign an “undertaking” to confess his guilt or admit his mistakes: “He has always believed that the sentence of four years is already a heavy sentence, he had already expressed his displeasure, and now she was asked to write an “undertaking”, he did not accept and would not cooperate with them This illegal request.”
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