Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that Guo Sujing, the wife of imprisoned labor activist Yao Fuxin, has appealed to the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Supreme People's Court to reexamine her request for Yao's medical parole. Another petition signed by more than 900 workers has also been submitted in support of Yao's release.

The Fifth Session of the Tenth NPC opened on March 5, while the Fifth Session of the Tenth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) began on March 3. Because of strict security procedures in place for the dual sessions, Guo Sujing was unable to approach the Great Hall of the People to submit her petition directly to the NPC. However, on March 7 she mailed her petition to the NPC's Letters and Petitions Office and to the Supreme People's Court.

Yao Fuxin was sentenced to seven years in prison on May 9, 2003, for his participation in demonstrations by tens of thousands of workers in March 2002 protesting alleged corruption and other abuses in the management of the bankrupt Liaoyang Ferro-Alloy Factory. Yao has suffered from a host of ailments in prison, including a heart condition that required 20 days of hospitalization in 2005. Guo Sujing has requested medical parole for her husband on many previous occasions, but has been refused. Legal appeals by Yao's lawyer, Mo Shaoping, have also failed. Last year around this time, Gao Sujing and her daughter Yao Dan petitioned the NPC and CPPCC to intervene on behalf of their request for medical parole for Yao, but received no reply. In the meantime, Yao's family members say that he is kept under 24-hour surveillance in prison, that other prisoners are forbidden from talking to him, and that he is deprived of mail and telephone privileges. Attempts by Yao's lawyer to negotiate improvements in Yao's treatment in prison have been unsuccessful.

In her petition letter, Guo Sujing provides background to Yao's case, and his failing health in a prison system in which he has been transferred eight times and subjected to physical abuse. Guo concludes, "I have related these circumstances many times to the Liaoyang municipal government, to the Political and Law office and to the prison authorities, and Ferro-Alloy workers have jointly signed an application to serve as guarantors for Yao's medical parole, but prison officials have consistently maintained that 'Yao Fuxin's case is special, and he cannot be released on medical parole.' Yao Fuxin's health continues to go from bad to worse, and I hope that the government can take consideration of Yao Fuxin's health, and on humanitarian grounds authorize his release on medical parole." A petition signed by 900 Ferro-Alloy workers supporting Yao's medical parole is attached to the Chinese version of this press release.

HRIC urges the NPC and the Supreme People's Court to exercise their respective authority to have Yao released from prison on medical parole in accordance with China's Prison Law. In addition, HRIC deplores the isolation imposed on Yao in prison, in particular the deprivation of his rights to communicate with his family. HRIC urges the Chinese authorities to address these shortcomings in Yao's treatment in the spirit of the government's promotion of a Harmonious Society, and in accordance with its human rights undertakings in relation to Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Olympics.

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