Taiwanese human rights advocate Lee Ming-che (李明哲) is being treated inhumanely in prison, the Rescue Lee Ming-che Team said yesterday.
In March last year, Lee was arrested in China and, eight months later, sentenced to five years in prison for “subversion of state power.”
Lee works more than 10 hours a day with no rest days, Lee Ming-che’s wife, Lee Ching-yu (李凈瑜), said at a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
Prison officials threw out Lee Ming-che’s warm clothes and serve him spoiled food, the team said.
They froze his bank account so that he cannot purchase food or extra clothing for the winter, Lee Ching-yu said, adding that they have forbidden family members from sending him clothes.
She said Chishan Prison officials claim that telephone service providers are unable to open an account for him, because he is Taiwanese and their computer systems cannot recognize his identification number.
The prison’s treatment of Lee Ming-che breaches the UN’s minimum standards for prisoners and China’s prison laws, the team said.
Lee Ching-yu said her husband, who is frustrated and has lost a considerable amount of weight, instructed her to hold the news conference and tell the world about his situation.
While the other inmates are able to receive the letters that their family and friends send, her husband has only received letters from her and his mother, she said, adding that their letters arrive with a six-month delay and that she has never received a response.
While the families of the other inmates can make monthly visits, she needs a special permit to even enter China, she said, adding that she was on Tuesday last week allowed to visit Lee Ming-che after filing an application in September and having it denied several times.
Urging the public to continue mailing postcards to her husband, Lee Ching-yu said that while her husband might not receive them, the Chinese government would.
The postcards would tell Beijing that the world has not forgotten about or given up on her husband, she said, adding that “we are all waiting for Lee Ming-che to come home.”
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