All’attivista dei diritti umani Chen Guangchen, imprigionato dopo le sue battaglie contro l’aborto forzato e altri abusi, attualmente in carcere, è stato negato di ricevere cure mediche nonostante le sue condizioni di salute siano precarie. Segue l’articolo in inglese

A Chinese human rights activist who was imprisoned after he documented forced abortions and other abuses has been denied medical care in prison and is in poor health, his wife and a human rights group said Thursday.

Chen Guangcheng, who is blind, has been suffering from diarrhea since July 2008, his wife, Yuan Weijing, said.

“He told me that he is now suffering daily diarrhea, and there’s been blood in his stool,” she said.

Yuan said she visited her husband in prison in eastern Shandong province in late December, and has requested that he be allowed to leave the jail for medical treatment. There has been no response by officials, she said.

According to Chinese law, seriously ill inmates can apply to jail officials to serve their sentences in a hospital or at home. Chen is due to be released in September 2010, Yuan said.

“We made requests to bail him out but were turned down. They simply told us that he was able to take care of himself, which we thought was ridiculous,” she said.

Chen, a self-taught lawyer, was sentenced to four years and three months in prison in 2006 after he documented cases of forced abortions and other abuses by family planning officials in his native Shandong. He was convicted on charges of instigating an attack on government offices and accused of organizing a group of people to disrupt traffic. His supporters say the charges were fabricated.

Yuan said she has been able to see her husband only four or five times in the nearly three years since he was detained in March 2006.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a network of overseas activists, said a prison doctor has said Chen suffers from chronic gastroenteritis but officials have refused to allow further medical examination without approval from provincial authorities.

“Chen’s condition is being exacerbated by a lack of access to clean water inside the jail, and a diet restricted to thin rice gruel,” it said in a statement.

The Associated Press, 15 January 2009