May 17, 2004

Families and friends yesterday petitioned for the release of a woman jailed for three years on the mainland for distributing Falun Gong material in Shenzhen.

Speaking in Hong Kong yesterday, Fung Chi-man, 46, said he was desperate to have at least a brief meeting with his wife, Fu Xueying, 28.

He has not seen or heard from her since her arrest more than six months ago.


"I was only told on May 10 that my wife was sentenced to three years in prison," said Mr Fung, a businessman.

He said that since her arrest he had been calling a judge responsible for the case every week and every time had been told to call again later.

Mr Fung often travels to the mainland, while his wife runs a chauffeur business in Shenzhen.

The couple married in 1998. Fu obtained a one-way permit to live in Hong Kong last July. She was arrested in October while distributing material about the Falun Gong in Shenzhen.

A Security Bureau spokesman said last night they were keeping in close contact with the family and they would follow up the case.(1)

Mr Fung and about two dozen Falun Gong followers walked from Kwun Tong to Kowloon City in a protest yesterday afternoon.

The group demanded the release of Fung and another Falun Gong [practitioner], Lin Junhui, a mainlander arrested in November. She was sentenced by a Shenzhen court to an unspecified jail term for returning with Falun Gong material after visiting relatives in Hong Kong.

 

(1) Mr. Fung's description of the "close contact" can be found from: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/15/46068.html

*South China Morning Post is the prominent English newspaper in Hong Kong.