China dissident has prison visits cancelled after EU award: wife
(BEIJING) - China has banned jailed dissident Hu Jia from receiving family visitors as punishment for winning the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize, his wife said on Thursday.
Zeng Jinyan told AFP that authorities informed her on Thursday she would not be allowed her monthly visit to Hu, a day after the European Parliament awarded him the prize in absentia.
She said police also warned her not to talk with foreign journalists.
"The political police asked the prison to cancel our visit to Hu Jia, that is a punishment," Zeng said in a webchat with AFP from her Beijing home that she carried out in defiance of the warnings.
"No one in the family has seen Hu Jia this month. I don't know when I will be allowed to see him."
Hu, 35, has won fame for his campaigning work for civil rights, the environment and the plight of China's marginalised AIDS sufferers.
But in April he was jailed for three-and-a-half years on a charge of inciting subversion, a vague charge critics say is used to silence dissenters.
He was initially arrested last year after giving testimony on human rights in China to the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee by video-conference.
Just before he was announced as the winner in October, China warned in a letter to senior lawmakers and the president of the parliament that giving the Sakharov Prize to Hu could damage ties with Europe.
China has insisted that Hu is a criminal who does not deserve any kind of prize.
"We have repeated our position on the decision of the European Parliament. I believe the European Parliament is quite aware of our position," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Thursday when asked about the prize.
In a video message broadcast to the parliament's chamber on Wednesday, Zeng said she wanted to use the the 50,000-euro (70,480-dollar) prize money to help families of other jailed activists in China.
And she continued to sound a note of defiance on Thursday.
"I hope people in China will continue to fight... but right now there is not a lot to be optimistic about," she said to AFP in the webchat.
Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.
