GENEVA – A group of United Nations independent experts, including Maina Kiai, today expressed deep concern about the critical health condition of prominent Chinese human rights defender Yang Maodong, known by his pen-name Guo Feixiong. They called on the Government of China to urgently provide Mr. Guo with specialized medical care, based on his full and informed consent, and stop all forms of ill-treatment. “We are concerned about repeated incidents of degrading and humiliating treatment suffered by Mr Guo in detention, both at the hands of other inmates and prison guards at Yangchun Prison in Guangdong province,” they said. Mr. Guo has been on a hunger strike for almost three months demanding to be transferred to another prison where he would be free from ill-treatment. “His public profile as a human rights defender seems to have been the cause and aggravating factor for the denial of appropriate medical care and ill-treatment, which included sleep deprivation, harassment, and humiliating medical procedure filmed by prison officials for public release,” the experts stated. The human rights defender was arrested in August 2013 for taking part in a public protest against official censorship of a Guangzhou newspaper. In November 2015, he was sentenced to six years of imprisonment on charges... Continue reading →
