A/HRC/7/10/Add.1 page 12 suffered by Falun Gong practitioners (see E/CN.4/2005/61, paras. 37-38; E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.1, para. 109; A/HRC/4/21/Add.1, para. 88). Urgent appeal sent on 1 December 2006 jointly with the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture 33. The Special Procedures mandate holders brought to the attention of the Government information they had received regarding Mr. Zhang Hongwei, member of the “Falun Gong”, detained in Jilin prison at the time the communication was sent. According to the information received, Mr. Hongwei was arrested in Beijing and sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment in 2001. He was transferred to Tiebei Prison in Changchun city, where he went on a 53-day hunger strike, and subsequently to Jilin Prison in March 2002. He was held in solitary confinement for two years and five months and ill-treated. His conditions of health were severe. By the beginning of 2006, Mr. Zhang was continuously coughing and type III tuberculosis was diagnosed. Body fluid was accumulating in his chest and in March 2006 he also suffered from pleurisy, high blood pressure and heart disease. Thereafter, he was transferred to the prison hospital, however, still illtreated by prison guards. Several applications by Mr. Zhang’s family for medical parole and access to his X-rays were refused. Further, his family was denied to visit him. Response from the Government dated 26 February 2007 34. The Government informed that on 20 January 2001 Mr. Hongwei was sentenced to 13 years’ fixed-term imprisonment by the Fangshan district people’s court in Beijing for the offence of using a heretical sect to engage in criminal activities and that he was stripped of his political rights for 3 years. He is currently serving his sentence in Jilin city penitentiary in Jilin province. It is not because he was a member of “Falun Gong” that Zhang was sentenced to a term of fixedterm imprisonment, but he was rather sentenced because he had engaged in criminal activities which were in breach of Chinese law. 35. In December 2005, when undergoing a health check-up in prison, Mr. Hongwei was found to be suffering from tuberculosis, but he maintained his firm conviction that, as a “Falun Gong” practitioner, when he fell ill he should not take any medicine or receive any injections, and that, as he himself was a disciple of the “dafa” - the major law, the master’s “dharma body” would protect and save him, and for these reasons he refused medical treatment. In February 2006, the prison management found that his condition had taken a turn for the worse and only after being repeatedly advised and encouraged he did agree to receive treatment. While in hospital, Mr. Hongwei received meticulous medical treatment and nursing care. His condition has now clearly improved and in clinical terms he has been cured of his illness. He has undergone two medical examinations by Jilin City Central Hospital and showed no symptoms of fever. His breathing was smooth, his heart rate normal and his ECG normal. The results of a frontal chest Xray show a calcification focus in the right pulmonary field. 36. Mr. Hongwei’s family members enquired as to whether he could be released for medical treatment outside the facility. The prison authorities deemed that his case did not meet the conditions for seeking medical attention outside the facility but special dispensation was granted to his family to be able to visit him outside regular visiting hours, with a view to fostering stronger relations between him and his family. To summarize, Mr. Hongwei has now fully recovered from his illness and has been discharged from hospital and his state of mind is stable.