(Minghui.org) Mr. Xin Tinchao from Laishui County, Hebei Province was illegally sentenced to a three-year prison term last year. It was said that he was sent to the Tianhe Prison in Beijing, but his whereabouts are now unknown.
His family has been getting the run around by authorities from the Tianhe Prison in Beijing, Jizhong Prison and Taihang Prison in Baoding City. Every prison claimed that he had been transferred out, but so far he has not been located. When the family questioned the prison guards at the Tianhe Prison, they blurted out, “That's none of our business!”
His family had visited him four times since his arrest in June 2013, with the last time being at the Tianhe Prison on July 14, 2014. When his family tried to visit again on August 15, they were told that he had been transferred to Jizhong Prison in Baoding City, Hebei Province on July 29.
However, the prison administrators at the Jizhong Prison told the family on August 19 that Mr. Xin's file was not within their system. The family was given the same answer at the Taihang Prison in Baoding City.
Where could Mr. Xin be? His family went back to Tianhe Prison on August 22 and a prison guard confirmed positively that Mr. Xin had been transferred to Jizhong Prison. However, he refused when asked to call Jizhong Prison to verify, claiming that he didn't have the phone number for Jizhong Prison .
The family asked how could he be so sure that Mr. Xin had been transferred there if he couldn't even make a phone call to confirm. The family pleaded, “We have visited the Jizhong Prison and were told that he was not there. It is quite a distance for us to go back and forth between prisons. Could you please look into it? We saw him here on July 14. How did he go missing in a month?” The prison guard blurted, “That's none of our business! He is definitely not here anymore!”
The family traveled back to Jizhong Prison and got the same answer from the prison guards.
Fearing the worst, the family cannot stop wondering, “A live person just disappears in prison? What is the prison trying to hide?”
Mr. Xin was arrested in Beijing on June 14, 2013, for giving someone a DVD of a Shen Yun dance performance with content that exposes the persecution of Falun Gong. Police from the Yayuncun Police Station made the arrest and took him to the Beijing Detention Center. He was later transferred to the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center.
Mr. Xin was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2013 and was transferred to the Tianhe Prison on March 3, 2014.
Tianhe Prison: +86-10-60278855 (main), +86-10-60277027 (information)Liu Kang (刘康) or Zhang Zhenshui (张振水), guards on duty at the Tianhe Prison: +86-10-65206436 (office)Wang (王某), Prison Political Section at the Jizhong Prison: +86-312-7198278 (office)