The wife of a Chinese dissident jailed for subversion has been allowed to visit him in prison in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan.
Also from the same prison, a cyber-writer has been released upon completion of his jail term for subversion, according to lawyers and family members.
Chen Mingxian, wife of Liu Xianbin, met with her husband in the Chuanzhong Prison in Nanchong city on May 6. Liu, 43, was sentenced to a 10-year jail term for "subversion of state power" in Suining two months ago.
Detained by authorities last June, Liu was among thousands of Chinese intellectuals and political activists who signed Charter 08, a document co-authored by jailed Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo which called for sweeping political change in China.
Upon learning that her husband was transferred to the Chuanzhong Prison on April 21, Chen rushed to the jail on April 30 to apply for a visit. But she was denied entry by the jail authorities for not bringing proper identification documents.
Last Friday, Chen went to the prison again, accompanied by Liu’s lawyer Ma Xiaopeng and was allowed to meet her husband for less than 20 minutes under the supervision of prison guards. However, Ma was not allowed to see his client.
Bible refused
At the meeting, Chen brought Liu volumes of classic Chinese writings by Confucius and Mencius. The prison authorities refused to allow Chen to give her husband a copy of the Bible, however.
Calls to Chen’s cell phone were not answered on Monday.
“Liu Xianbin is doing fine [in prison],” said Ma Xiaopeng, his lawyer.
“His wife asked me to go to the prison with her but I didn’t see Liu.”
“Liu’s wife said his outlook was not that bad. The wife sent in some clothing,” added Ma.
Jail term completed
In a separate development, freelance cyber-writer Chen Daojun was freed from the same Chuanzhong jail on Sunday, after finishing his jail term of three years for “inciting subversion of state power.”
“I received him in the prison at 6 a.m. Sunday morning. He is fine but looks very emaciated,” said Chen’s wife Zeng Qirong.
However, she said the prison authorities had kept his manuscripts written in about 10,000 Chinese characters, claiming that they had to inspect them before returning to him.
Zeng also said that Chen has been deprived of political rights for three years.
“No, he cannot talk to a reporter,” she said.
Chen Daojun, 43, was detained in May 2008 in Sichuan’s provincial capital Chengdu City over his articles on the Tibetan protests in Lhasa in March of the same year.
Tibetan rights
The article defended the basic rights of the Tibetan protesters while condemning the Chinese government’s violent crackdown on the demonstrations.
“Chen was charged with ‘inciting to split the nation,’ but even the prosecutors couldn’t agree with the charge so they were not present at the court when he was convicted,” said his attorney Zhu Jiuhu in an interview on Monday.
“When the court handed him a jail term, the charge had been changed to ‘inciting subversion of state power.’ We all were surprised because what he did was just write several articles,” Zhu added.
Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Ping Chen.
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