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Chen Xi, human rights activist, tortured with cold and frost
His wife and daughter permission to visit for a few minutes. The dissident sentenced to 10 years, had blisters due to cold sores on his body and hands. The authorities forbade his wife to send winter clothes.
Beijing (AsiaNews / CHRD) - Human rights activist Chen Xi, sentenced to 10 years for his commitment to human rights is suffering in prison for the cold. His condition was denounced by his wife who succeeded in discovering the place of his detention a few days ago. On 3 February, Chen’s wife and the daughter faced a six hours journey to the prison in Xingyi (Guizhou) from Guiyang city, where the family resides. Prison authorities allowed only a 20 minute meeting under close surveillance by prison guards.
The wife said her husband, because of the intense cold, was covered in cold sores with blisters on his hands and body with open wounds. Her husband has no warm clothes or blankets. His wife has asked the authorities to be allowed send winter clothes but she was forbidden.
The government refused to make public his place of detention and was forced to backtrack only after Chen's wife threatened to denounce the silence to media.
Chen Xi, 58 (see photo), was arrested last November 29 and sentenced Dec. 26 for "inciting subversion of state power". As evidence, the judges cited 36 articles he has written and published on the web. His arrest is linked to the repression launched by Beijing to avoid an "Arab spring" in China.
Chen is a member of the Forum for Human Rights of Guizhou, which authorities have declared an "illegal organization".
This is the third time that Chen has suffered a conviction. In 1989, for participating in the Tiananmen Square protests, he spent three years in prison, in 1996 he was sentenced to 10 years for "organizing and leading a group of counter-revolution" for democracy.