(Minghui.org) A Guangzong County, Hebei Province resident serving time for practicing Falun Gong has been denied family visitation after he was transferred to a local prison.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Yan Xiuhong, 53, was arrested on October 29, 2020. He was sentenced to 4.5 years by the Guangzong County Court on September 7, 2021 and taken to the Jidong Prison on October 20, 2021.
Mr. Yan’s family called the prison on October 29, 2021 to inquire about his whereabouts, as the Jidong Prison has nine branches and the family didn’t know which one he was taken to. The authorities claimed that Mr. Yan was attending a new admission training session and that he wasn’t allowed to meet with or call his family. The authorities also refused to provide information about how to make cash deposits for him to buy daily necessities in prison.
Mr. Yan’s family called a prison director in January 2022 and was told that he was held at the second branch, but without revealing the specific ward. The director blamed Mr. Yan for not providing his family’s phone number to the prison and said he would urge Mr. Yan to call his family. But the family didn’t receive any call from him after that.
Mr. Yan’s family called the director again on February 11, 2022 and demanded to visit Mr. Yan. The director rejected the request. He still claimed that it was Mr. Yan himself who didn’t want to call his family. The director refused to provide information about how Mr. Yan’s family could contact him.
The family called the Jidong Prison No.2 Branch on April 20, 2022, demanding to talk to Mr. Yan. In the evening, Mr. Yan called them and told them that he was being detained in team one in the first ward.
The family contacted the prison again in February 2023, when all the COVID restrictions had been lifted, and demanded to visit Mr. Yan. The guard who answered the call claimed that they could arrange the visitation in March.
When the family later called to confirm the March visit, they were told the visit had been postponed to May. The caller also said only Mr. Yan’s parents, wife or children would be allowed to visit him, when the prison knew all too well that his parents have passed away and that he is single, with his sister and brother being his closest family members.
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