Taiwanese human rights groups are calling on China to release Taiwanese pro-democracy activist Lee Ming-che as soon as his sentence ends.
Lee was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 on charges of “pursuing activities harmful to national security”.
Taiwanese civic groups say Lee’s sentence should end April 14. But Lee’s wife, Lee Ching-yu, says Chinese authorities still have not told her when her husband will be released.
The secretary-general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, Chiu E-ling, is calling on Beijing to release Lee as soon as his sentence is over. She says that Lee continues to be detained without any proper justification, and that Chinese authorities have violated all the rules of international human rights law.
Taiwanese human rights groups are also calling on Taiwan’s government to be more transparent about the Taiwanese citizens who are still detained in China. The head of the group Covenants Watch, Huang Sung-li, says Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council should make all the information it has on those citizens public, as long as doing so does not compromise their safety.