Latest News on Hu Jia
Hu Jia’s Application for Medical Release Denied
By Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕)
http://www.zengjinyan.org/
Translated by Anton Lee Wishik II
On June 5th, national guardsmen drove Hu Jia’s mother, his baby daughter Qianci, and myself to visit him in the Chaobai Prison which is located among the Qinghe farmlands in the Hangu district of Tianjin. Due to this being an ‘abnormal visit,’ the prison guards said that it was still not known when the next visit would be and that we should await notification.
Hu Jia (胡佳） had no idea his family was coming to visit him, and he was shocked to see us. He had a pallid complexion, looked somewhat aged, and his hands were strangely white. Hu said that it could be due to a lack of outside activities. During this time, there were several police at our side, and we were being recorded and photographed. The main things we talked about were the Sichuan earthquake and family affairs. Upon learning that I was still not free, he repeatedly enjoined me to “find a way to lead a completely free and dignified life.”
Hu told me that he had eight cellmates, four of whom were responsible for ‘helping and educating’ him. He also said that although these prisoners had been sent to jail due to drug trafficking, addiction, or murder (serving sentences of about twenty years), they were really just common people. He also said that he currently was having to do fill-in-the-blank questions and study the report of the 17th National Party Congress. There was scarcely any outside activities, and he had basically no time to read the books I had given him because his time was being restricted. He said that he had been checked for cirrhosis of the liver, but he had not seen the results. He had been taking Heptodin and Vitamin C daily. He also said that because of anxiety he had an oral ulcer. I asked for some details, but he didn’t reply.
We tried to confirm whether the letters we had written to each other had been received. We realized that the first letter he had written me and two long letters I had written him (sent in May using express delivery) had not been delivered.
The police said our meeting time was about 40 minutes.
After the meeting, a member of the prison’s administration gave us the reply to Hu Jia’s application for arrangement for medical release: First, Hu Jia must serve at least one-third of his sentence before he can apply. Counting his time served up until now, not until July of next year would he be able to apply. Secondly, until Hu Jia becomes critically ill, he cannot apply for medical release. (In 2006, upon being discharged from Ditan Hospital, Hu Jia had been diagnosed with: “liver, post-cirrhosis, reactiveness, lost compensation stage, type 2, high pressure portal vein, declining functioning of the spleen, slow acting cholecystitis, multiple polyps in the cholecyst.”)
I had hoped that the prison would continue with the program that Ditan Hospital had developed for Hu Jia, but they said they had no such obligation. Hu Jia’s mother hoped that when preparing labor workshops, attention would be paid to safety in order to avoid injuring eyes and such. I hoped that the prison would humanely prepare some outside activities, reduce the time spent on ‘thought education,’ and ensure Hu Jia’s basic physical health and basic medical treatment. In addition, in order to avoid making his condition worse from building up a tolerance which could resist the antiviral medicine when he stopped taking it or from the vile environment’s lack of nutrition, I hoped they would closely monitor his health any time they did check-ups
Notes:
For Background on Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, check http://zonaeuropa.com/20070507_1.htm
Related Posts- Translation: Article from Latest 炎黄春秋 (Yanhuang Chunqiu)
- China Shouldn’t Care So Much About World Leaders Attending the Opening Ceremony
No Comments Yet