(Minghui.org) A woman imprisoned for her faith has been suffering from breast cancer and Hepatitis B, but her request for medical parole has been repeatedly denied because her family refused to cover her medical expenses as demanded by the prison authorities.
Ms. Lan Lihua, a resident of Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, is serving a three-year-and-ten-months term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Lan’s family visited her at Liaoning Women’s Prison on October 28, 2019 and requested that Xia Chunlei, the head of the prison hospital, grand medical parole to her.
Xia first blamed Ms. Lan for being a criminal. Her family refuted the claim and said that Ms. Lan didn’t do anything wrong for upholding her faith.
As Ms. Lan’s family had previously declined the prison hospital's proposal to operate on her, they were told to seek medical treatment for her at their own expense.
While meeting with Xia this time, her family expressed that they refuse to cover Ms. Lan's future medical costs, as the Chinese prison law dictates that the government should cover all medical expenses incurred by inmates.
After several rounds of discussion, Xia said the only possible way for them to grant medical parole to Ms. Lan would be for her to go through a thorough medical checkup to see if she met the parole requirements. She again demanded that Ms. Lan’s family cover the cost of the examination done outside of the prison hospital.
Ms. Lan’s family insisted that they wouldn’t pay the examination fee, as that’s illegal and also a form of persecution.
The prison allowed Ms. Lan’s husband and younger sister to visit her before they left. But her medical parole is still not granted at the time of writing.
Ms. Lan, 48, was arrested on November 6, 2018 after being reported for passing out a calendar with information about Falun Gong. She was tortured while being held at Shenyang No. 1 Detention Center and later diagnosed with breast cancer.
Ms. Lan appeared in Sujiatun District Court on May 5, 2019 and was sentenced to prison on the next day.
She contracted Hepatitis B shortly after being sent to Liaoning Women’s Prison on September 26, 2019.
Her family has been seeking bail and medical parole for her since her arrest, but the authorities have repeatedly rejected their requests.
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