China: Human rights activist held in prison illegally

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) accuses the Chinese government of illegally holding political prisoners in prison even after they have served their sentences, which is in violation of both Chinese law and internationally recognized legal principles. "For example, civil rights activist Hada is being held illegally in an irregular prison near the airport in Hohhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region," reported the head of the STP's Asia section, Ulrich Delius, on Tuesday in Göttingen. The political prisoner, who served a 15-year sentence for his efforts in supporting the rights of the Mongolian ethnic minority, should have been released on Human Rights Day six months ago today (10 December 2010). Hada has gone on hunger strikes repeatedly in recent weeks to protest his illegal imprisonment.

Hada's fate is not an exceptional case, according to the STP. Time and time again followers of the Falun Gong meditation movement, sent to work camps and re-education camps because of their faith, have been held beyond their official sentences when they should have been released. "This contravenes not only Chinese law, but also internationally recognized legal principles," criticized Delius.

Now Hada's closest relatives have also been imprisoned, after they alerted international media to his fate. A few days before his sentence was officially to end on 10 December 2010, his wife Xinna and his son Uiles disappeared without a trace. Later a photograph of Hada with his family was published on the Internet, with no clue given as to their whereabouts. On 17 January 2011, Xinna and Uiles were formally arrested on the pretense that they had committed economic crimes and were in possession of drugs. Other friends and relatives of the 56-year-old book dealer have been intimidated, placed under house arrest or arrested.

Dissidents in China against whom no evidence of wrongdoing is found are often charged with economic crimes. Similar accusations were made against imprisoned artist Ai Weiwei. Two sons of Uighur human rights activist Rebiya Kadeer, too, have been condemned to long prison sentences for alleged economic offenses.

Hada was sentenced to 15 years in prison because he distributed books about the destruction of Mongolian culture by China. The roughly 5.8 million Mongolians living in Inner Mongolia were systematically "sinicized" throughout the 20th century. As millions of Han Chinese moved to the area, the Mongolians became a minority in their own region, where today they make up only 20 percent of the population.