Chinese prison authorities have barred Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜) from visiting her husband, jailed human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲), for three months.
Lee Ming-che was in 2017 sentenced to five years for “subversion of state power.”
In a letter dated Tuesday last week, Chishan Prison in China’s Hunan Province said that after Lee Ching-yu visited her husband on Dec. 18, she made public comments that greatly deviated from the facts.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Association for Human Rights
She interfered with the normal exercise of the prison’s law enforcement duties and hindered Lee Ming-che’s rehabilitation, it said.
Citing Chinese regulations, the prison said that Lee Ching-yu’s visitation rights would be suspended from Wednesday last week until April 22.
Other individuals who meet the prison’s conditions for visitation and apply to visit would be permitted, in line with the regulations, it added.
At a news conference in Taipei on Dec. 24, Lee Ching-yu said that her husband was being treated inhumanely at the prison.
Lee Ming-che was being forced to work more than 10 hours a day without any rest days, his warm clothing had been thrown out by prison officials, they served him spoiled food and his bank account had been frozen, Lee Ching-yu told reporters.
Her requests to visit her husband had been denied multiple times before she was finally allowed the visit in December.
Her most recent request to visit her husband was rejected, the Straits Exchange Foundation said on Friday.
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