Imprisoned Rights Activist Guo Feixiong Suffering from Serious Health Issues

Yang Maoping (杨茂平), sister of imprisoned rights activist Guo Feixiong (郭飞雄) (also known as Yang Maodong (杨茂东)), circulated online the below account about Guo’s ill health after she visited him in Yangchun Prison, Guangdong (广东阳春监狱) this morning. Yang said that she repeated a request she first made to the prison authorities on February 29 that Guo be transferred to an upper-grade hospital to receive medical treatment. HRIC has translated Yang’s account, “Guo Feixiong’s Health Condition Worrisome,” in which she provides some details on Guo’s condition (see below).

Guo was first detained on August 8, 2013 in connection with his advocacy for asset transparency, tried in November 2014, and convicted in November 2015 of “gathering crowds to disrupt order in public places” and “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” and sentenced to six years in prison.

Guo has suffered serious abuses while in detention (see HRIC’s case profile on Guo, on right hand side in Related Resources). HRIC calls on the international community to press for immediate medical attention for Guo.

Guo’s supporters urge those concerned to send their support to Guo Feixiong, and to contact the prison authorities to request Guo’s medical parole:

Yangchun Prison Address:
Yangchun Prison
Songbai Township
Yangchun City, Guangdong Province
Zip: 529615
Phone: 0662-7806009

Guo Feixiong Address:
Hospital at Yangchun Prison, Compound 1
Songbai Township
Yangchun City, Guangdong Province
Prisoner Number: 4412029461

廣東省陽春監獄 地址：廣東省陽春市松柏鎮一號大院
郵編：529615
獄政科電話：0662-7806009
郭飛雄地址：廣東省陽春市松柏鎮一號大院醫院監區
囚號4412029461楊荗東收

Guo Feixiong’s Health Condition Worrisome

An Account Posted Online by Yang Maoping, Sister of Guo Feixiong

[Translation by Human Rights in China]

Today, April 26, 2016 at 10:00am, I saw my brother Yang Maodong (Guo Feixiong) at Yangchun Prison in Guangdong (广东阳春监狱). He was paler and thinner than when I saw him on February 29 of this year, and his complexion was ashen. Before I even spoke, Yang told me there is something seriously wrong with his health. He had been admitted to the prison hospital on April 7, after a year of intermittent bloody or watery stools. Since arriving in prison, he has also suffered from occasional bleeding in the mouth and throat, and he hemorrhaged on April 19, and he has been unsteady on his feet. Yesterday, when he spoke with Officer Liu in the Prison Management Division, he could barely stand. In the hospital, he was kept with four other people inside a seven and a half square-meter room without windows, for 23 hours a day. When he requested a medical check related to his symptoms, the police watching him said there was nothing they could do. When he asked the doctor, the hospital said this needed Officer Liu’s approval, and Officer Liu did not approve it.

Regarding Yang’s health condition, when I met with the head of the Prison Management Division on February 29, I pleaded with him to request a medical checkup for Yang, including an MRI on his lumbar spine because he was not looking normal. Today, I once again asked the head of the Prison Management Division to transfer Yang to an upper-grade hospital for an endoscopy, colonoscopy, lung CT scan, and blood work, so that he could get a clear diagnosis and treatment. The head of the Prison Management Division said Yang never said anything to him, and that if Yang were to faint, he would immediately be sent to the hospital. I said, anyone who saw Yang in his current state would think he looks abnormal; if you wait until he faints before sending him to the hospital, I’m afraid it will be too late. I once again pleaded for a transfer to an upper-grade hospital. I told him if you cannot solve this problem, please report this to your superiors, and I hope this can be resolved as soon as possible. When I was speaking with the prison authorities, they had the prison video camera pointed at me the whole time.

See Chinese original.