The wife of Chinese rights attorney Wang Quanzhang has spoken with him by video call, showing the screen on social media for the first time since his formal release from prison last week.
Wang is seen in a brief clip of the video call with Li Wenzu uploaded to Twitter wearing glasses but no face mask, in spite of police claims that he is being sequestered for 14 days' quarantine in the eastern province of Shandong because of the coronavirus.
Li declined to comment on Monday, saying it was "inconvenient," a term often used by activists and their families to hint at pressure from the authorities, who have frequently exacted promises from released or bailed activists that they and their families must eschew contact with foreign media organizations, or risk further harassment.
Beijing-based rights activist Ye Jinghuan told RFA that Li and the couple's son had spoken with Wang twice by video call on Sunday, during an outing to Beijing's Summer Palace.
Wang has been prevented from rejoining his family at their home in Beijing following his release from Shandong's Linyi Prison on April 5, and is currently under round-the-clock surveillance at an apartment he owns in Shandong's provincial capital, Jinan.
"Wang Quanzhang came across as pretty normal in terms of his facial expressions, and he looked pretty much the same as the man I knew," Ye, who tweeted the video clip of the call, told RFA.
"He was wearing glasses, and has gotten a lot balder on top of his head," Ye said. "He seemed to be missing a few teeth, though."
"But he seemed pretty normal."
Ye said Wang had wept when he saw a tweet which expressed his young son's wish that his father could come home.
"I said, don't cry Quanzhang, you'll make us cry too," he said. "I hated seeing Quanzhang cry like that."
July 2015 crackdown on lawyers
Wang Qiaoling, wife of rights lawyer Li Heping, who was also held as part of a nationwide crackdown by President Xi Jinping's administration on rights lawyers beginning in July 2015, said the families of the detained lawyers still feel its impact, either through evictions, financial hardship through loss of work, or other forms of official harassment.
"The families are still facing widespread harassment, several years after the July 2015 crackdown," Wang Qiaoling said. "We hate it; we think it's ridiculous."
"People should be allowed home to be reunited with their families after being released from prison; that's all there is to it," she said. "I think it's unreasonable to keep families apart like that; it's utterly inhumane."
Wang was released from Shandong's Linyi Prison at the end of a four-and-a-half year jail term handed down on Jan. 28, 2019 by the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, which found him guilty of "subversion of state power."
Rights groups say he may have been tortured or subjected to other inhumane treatment since his detention.
His verdict and sentence followed repeated delays, resulting in Wang being held in pretrial detention for more than three years with no access to a lawyer or family visits.
During that time, the authorities failed to provide a proper account of Wang’s prolonged detention to the public, including Wang’s family and family-appointed defense lawyers.
A nationwide police operation under the administration of Xi has targeted more than 300 lawyers, law firms, and related activists for questioning, detention, imprisonment, debarring, and travel bans since it launched in July 2015.
Reported by Gao Feng for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wong Lok-to for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.