Prominent Human Rights Lawyer Jiang Tianyong Force-Fed Medication in Prison

Foreign journalists interview Chinese rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong in Beijing on May 2, 2012. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)

Human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong has been forced to take a mysterious medication while imprisoned in a Chinese jail, according to his wife, Jin Bianling, in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Jiang was arrested in November 2016. Prosecutors charged him with “attempting to overthrow the socialist system“ and ”seriously harming state security and social stability” after Jiang set up an awareness campaign supporting lawyers and activists who were arrested in a nationwide operation in July 2015.

In a June 27 interview with RFA, Jin said prison guards are forcing Jiang to take unidentified medication twice daily, and his memory has deteriorated as a result.

In May, reports emerged of petitioners, dissidents, human rights lawyers, and Uyghurs detained at “re-education camps” being forced to take mysterious medications that led to similar symptoms.

Amnesty International China researcher Patrick Poon also told RFA that other lawyers detained since the July 2015 operation have reported being force-fed medication.

Jin said she has made a request with the Henan Province No. 2 Prison, where Jiang is detained, to provide her with the name and dosage of the medication.

Meanwhile, Jiang has also been prevented from buying basic necessities and receiving packages from family members. He is only allowed to take his exercise time in the corridors, not in the open air, Jin added.

Jiang’s father, Jiang Lianghou, told RFA that when he visited his son in prison, he was sitting on a metal chair fixed to the floor with manacles attached. “His legs were red and swollen,” the elder Jiang said, leading him to believe his son was forced to sit in the chair for long periods of time, a common form of torture.

Jiang has represented many clients who were unjustly treated by communist authorities, including practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline heavily persecuted by the Chinese regime since 1999. He was previously detained and tortured in 2011 for taking part in pro-democracy protests known as the Jasmine Revolution.