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| Jiang Tianyong (on screen) calls his wife and daughter after two years in prison. (Photo: ChinaAid) |
ChinaAid
(Zhengzhou, Henan-March 2, 2019) A human rights lawyer and his father and sister were returned home yesterday at 4:00 p.m., a day after they had all gone missing.
Jiang Tianyong, who was scheduled to be released Thursday after spending two years in prison on a subversion of state power charge pinned to him because of his work as a human rights attorney, vanished before his supporters could collect him at the prison. His father and sister, who planned to go to where he had been jailed and meet him, were also incommunicado.
Initially, authorities informed Jiang’s family that he would be taken to Zhengzhou, where the government would find a job, and he would not be allowed to return home upon release.
All three, however, turned up at Jiang’s parents’ home on Friday afternoon, and Jiang was able to video call his wife and daughter, who are living in the United States.
Jiang, who has been in police custody several times on account of his human rights work and even reported torture at the hands of the authorities, was taken from a train while heading home to Beijing after visiting the wife of a then-imprisoned human rights lawyer. In August 2017, he stood trial and was later sentenced to two years in prison with three years’ deprivation of political rights, which a public security bureau officer attempted to use as reasoning for why it would be legal for China to not let him return home upon release, even though that would be a violation of Chinese law.
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ChinaAid Media Team
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