Wife and 7-year-old son appeal for his release in New York City
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NEW YORK, November 4, 2002 (Falun Dafa Information Centre) — New York City resident Celia Wang learned Friday that her husband, Yuhui Zhang, had been secretly sentenced to ten years in a Chinese prison in Zhuhai City, Guangzhou Province. Mr. Zhang’s sentence appears to be linked to a
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| Yuhui Zhang together with his daughter and son in Macao in 1998. Mr. Zhang was sentenced to ten years in a Chinese prison for authoring pro-Falun Gong articles. |
Mr. Zhang’s relatives say he had been illegally detained
in Zhuhai City’s Meixi No.2 Detention Centre for nearly two years. Ms. Wang
says that recent news from Mr. Zhang’s lawyer, however, confirms that Mr. Zhang
had actually been secretly sentenced to ten years in prison.
Along with reports of her husband’s secret sentencing,
Ms. Wang also learned on Friday that he has been suffering “long term torture”
that she says their lawyer describes as “beyond imagination.”
Speaking from her home in New York, Ms. Wang said, “This
is a fanatical persecution.” She also says she will launch an appeal immediately.
An International “Family Rescue” Case
Mr. Zhang’s case (website) had been part of an international effort to rescue
family members who had been detained or sentenced to forced labour camps in
China merely for peacefully exercising their freedom of assembly, speech and
belief, rights guaranteed in China’s constitution. Since the international “Family
Rescue” (news / website) effort was launched in July, four family members
in China have been released from forced labour camps.
One of the organizers of the international “Family Rescue” effort,
Mr. Haiying He, said yesterday from Chicago; “we will do everything in
our power to call for help from U.S. government officials and human rights organizations
to rescue Mr. Yuhui Zhang.”
Imprisoned for Sharing Ideas, Insights on Falun Gong
The 37-year-old Mr. Zhang graduated from the Beijing Foreign Trade University.
He immigrated to Macao in the early 1990s. After Jiang Zemin ordered the crackdown
on Falun Gong in July 1999, Mr. Zhang authored and posted a series of articles
on the Internet, discussing the nature of the Falun Gong practice, and exposing
many facts behind the persecution campaign against the practice that called
into question much of the propaganda the Chinese state-run media was producing.
“Many websites and newspapers, including the World Daily, published Mr.
Zhang’s articles,” notes Falun Dafa Information Centre spokesperson Dr.
Shiyu Zhou. “The articles were very insightful and made a significant impact
on people…they really made people think about what was happening at that time.”
According to AFP and the Central News Agency, Chinese police arrested Mr. Zhang
in October 1999, while he was on a business trip to China reportedly due to
concerns that Mr. Zhang would organize demonstrations during Macao’s return
to Chinese rule. Mr. Zhang was released in December 1999, but his passport was
confiscated, effectively obstructing him from returning to Macao to rejoin his
family.
Mr. Zhang remained in Zhuhai City, and was arrested again in December 2000.
“After Yuhui was arrested in December 2000, the police never once allowed
us to visit him,” remembers Ms. Wang. “Our lawyer was also prohibited
from getting involved, and so Yuhui’s ten-year sentence was never made known
to us…until now.”
According to a February 2002 report from the Hong Kong Information Centre for
Human Rights and Democracy, Mr. Zhang was initially accused of “subversion”
because he gathered information about Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted
throughout China and posted this information on the Internet.
According to the Centre’s report, however, the evidence was not sufficient
to secure a conviction, and in September 2001, the charges were changed to utilize
laws targeting “heretical organizations” that were, according to a
November 2, 1999, article from the Washington Post, rubber-stamped by the People’s
Congress for the purpose of legalizing the persecution of Falun Gong: “When
[China’s Communist leaders] found themselves without the laws they need to rigorously
persecute a peaceful meditation society, the Party simply ordered up some new
laws,” the article reported.
Under these new charges, Mr. Zhang was sentenced to ten years in prison.
Nine other Falun Gong practitioners who had been arrested with Mr. Zhang were
also sentenced. Six of the practitioners were students of China’s prestigious
Tsinghua University, commonly called “China’s M.I.T.” Due to the visit
of U.S. President Bush the following February and his plans to speak at Tsinghua
University (news), an official announcement of the sentences was not made.
A Family Torn Apart
Mr. Zhang has two children. His son is 7 years old, and living with his mother
in New York City. His daughter is 4 years old and is being taken care of by
family members in Mainland China.
Ms. Wang said, “Two children have not seen their father in two years.
This persecution in China has torn our family apart.”
Posting date: 06/Nov/2002
Original article date: 05/Nov/2002
Category: Media Release
