Yin Xu’an completes sentence and returns home to strict surveillance
On 22 November 2023, human rights defender Yin Xu’an left prison after completing a 4.5 year prison sentence. He was escorted back to his home in Daye City in Hubei Province. CCTV cameras have been installed behind and in front of his home. Security officers have also been been stationed around his home.
In late May 2022, human rights defender Yin Xu’an was transferred to Huangzhou Prison in Hubei province. In June, he was allowed to talk to his family on the phone. The defender is currently undergoing treatment at the prison’s hospital and his health condition has improved since suffering a stroke in February 2022. However, he is still not fully recovered as he has difficulty walking and has high blood pressure.
Human rights defender Yin Xu’an’s health has deteriorated after suffering a stroke in February 2022 in the Daye Detention Centre in eastern Hubei province, where he is awaiting transfer to a prison to serve a four-and-a-half-year sentence. On 2 March 2022, the human rights defender’s family asked the Daye Dentention Centre for updates about his latest whereabouts, health conditions, and the medical treatment he is receiving, but the authorities refused to disclose any information and also denied their request to meet or video-call him. Yin Xu’an suffers from multiple health conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
Yin Xu'an (尹旭安) is a petitioner and a human rights defender from Daye city in Hubei province. He has campaigned on human rights issues, including wrongful convictions, the “re-education through labour” system, extralegal detention, unlawful State exappropriation of land, and judicial harassment against human rights defenders and political activists. He has also advocated for the Chinese government to ratify international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Due to his human rights advocacy, Yin Xu'an had been repeatedly detained or imprisoned since 2007. Yin Xu'an was arrested in July 2015 shortly after participating in an offline and online campaign for the release of a human rights defender, and was later sentenced in May 2017 to three-and-a-half years.
On 22 November 2023, human rights defender Yin Xu’an left prison after completing a 4.5 year prison sentence. He was escorted back to his home in Daye City in Hubei Province. CCTV cameras have been installed behind and in front of his home. Security officers have also been been stationed around his home.
Independent human rights monitors have reported that the human rights defender’s family has not been able to contact him in the days since his return home, and that he must request permission from the authorities if he wants to leave his home, even when seeking medical treatment.
In late May 2022, human rights defender Yin Xu’an was transferred to Huangzhou Prison in Hubei province. In June, he was allowed to talk to his family on the phone. The defender is currently undergoing treatment at the prison’s hospital and his health condition has improved since suffering a stroke in February 2022. However, he is still not fully recovered as he has difficulty walking and has high blood pressure.
Human rights defender Yin Xu’an’s health has deteriorated after suffering a stroke in February 2022 in the Daye Detention Centre in eastern Hubei province, where he is awaiting transfer to a prison to serve a four-and-a-half-year sentence. On 2 March 2022, the human rights defender’s family asked the Daye Dentention Centre for updates about his latest whereabouts, health conditions, and the medical treatment he is receiving, but the authorities refused to disclose any information and also denied their request to meet or video-call him. Yin Xu’an suffers from multiple health conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
Yin Xu'an (尹旭安) is a petitioner and a human rights defender from Daye city in Hubei province. He has campaigned on human rights issues, including wrongful convictions, the “re-education through labour” system, extralegal detention, unlawful State exappropriation of land, and judicial harassment against human rights defenders and political activists. He has also advocated for the Chinese government to ratify international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Due to his human rights advocacy, Yin Xu'an had been repeatedly detained or imprisoned since 2007. Yin Xu'an was arrested in July 2015 shortly after participating in an offline and online campaign for the release of a human rights defender, and was later sentenced in May 2017 to three-and-a-half years.
On 14 February 2022, a police officer informed Yin Xu’an’s family that he had suffered a stroke in the Daye Detention Centre and was transferred to the Daye Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Daye City for treatment. In short video-calls the family was allowed to have with the Yin Xu’an in February, the human rights defender looked very frail and his speech was slurred. He was not able to eat and drink on his own and had to be fed.
Yin Xu’an was detained in May 2019 and indicted in October 2019 for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. On 19 January 2020, his trial began at the Daye Municipal Court, but was immediately postponed on the basis that the prosecutors requested more time for supplementary investigation. On 21 July 2021, the Daye Court sentenced him to four years and six months. On 28 January 2022, the Huangshi Intermediate Court, in southeastern Hubei province, upheld the sentence on appeal.
Front Line Defenders believes Yin Xu’an is being targeted solely for his work in defence of human rights. Before the stroke in February 2022, Yin Xu’an had already been in poor health and had to be transferred from the detention centre to a hospital for emergency treatment several times. The authorities have repeatedly denied his lawyer’s applications for bail on medical grounds. Yin Xu’an’s repeated hospitalisation during detention strongly suggests that his life might be endangered if he is not allowed to receive adequate, continuous medical care outside of detention centres and prisons, where harsh conditions have contributed to the deaths of human rights defenders.
