Mr. Hada, a Southern (Inner) Mongolian political prisoner who completed 19 years of imprisonment in Chinese prisons last December, is still treated by the Chinese authorities as a prisoner, according to a statement from his wife Xinna to the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC).

Pictures sent to the SMHRIC show that Chinese State Security personnel are guarding Hada closely. On the stairways and in hallways, State Security dispatches set up folding beds and chairs as they took turns monitoring every single activity of Hada around the clock.

“This is one of two State Security dispatches who watch Hada in the hallway,” Xinna explained about one of the pictures sent to the SMHRIC. “The one seen in the picture left hastily upon seeing I was taking pictures of him.”

“State Security agents squeeze themselves in this small space, no larger than 9 square meters, to monitor Hada every day,” Xinna said in the statement. “This is the so-called ‘freedom’ Hada is given. The pictures tell you that Hada’s imprisonment is still continuing. Only the place has changed.”

Put under a de facto house arrest in an apartment owned by the Public Security Bureau, Hada told the SMHRIC that he is treated no better than a prisoner.

“My health has been deteriorating,” Hada said in a message sent to the SMHRIC. “Now I am only about 50 kilograms. During torture and maltreatment, my weight even dropped to 40 kilograms.”

Hada said that the State Security agents not only monitored him closely but that they also followed him everywhere.

“Once I went to the Hohhot Train Station to pick up the Mongolian traditional dairy food my relatives sent to me. State Security agents followed and asked me to open the package,” Hada said in a short statement to the SMHRIC. “I refused and complained loudly that the Chinese authorities are treating me badly and unfairly as a Mongolian,” Hada continued. “Lacking confidence with what they were doing, the State Security agents disappeared into the crowd as many Mongolian passengers gathered to help me.”

In 1995, Hada was arrested and later sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of “splitting the country and engaging in espionage.” On December 10, 2010, he completed his full prison term. Yet, not only did the Chinese authorities refuse to free him, but they placed him under another 4 years of extrajudicial detention in a “black jail” in suburban Hohhot.

Despite the torture and maltreatment he has been subjected to in the past 20 years, Hada has consistently refused to admit that he committed any crime. He is still determined to sue the government and the Public Security authorities for illegally sentencing him to 15 years in prison, holding him for another 4 years of extrajudicial detention, and maltreating and persecuting him and his family members.

His wife, Xinna, was arrested on December 4, 2010, on a trumped-up charge of “involvement in illegal business,” referring to her Mongolian Studies Bookstore. In April 2012, she was sentenced to three years in prison with five years reprieve on the same charge.

In 2002, the then 17-year-old Uiles, son of Hada and Xinna, was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for another trumped-up case of “involvement in robbery.”

On December 5, 2010, Uiles was arrested for “illegal drug possession.” After nearly a year of detention, he was discharged but was placed under “residential surveillance,” a form of house arrest.

Last week, Uiles was arrested for “obstructing official business,” and currently he is still held in the Bogot City (“bao tou shi” in Chinese) Public Security Bureau Detention Center.

 

Chairs and electric heaters used by State Security personnel who monitor Hada around the clock (SMHRIC photo)

 

Chair and folding bed of the Chinese State Security agents in front of Hada's door (SMHRIC photo)