The wife of ethnic Mongolian dissident Hada hit out at the Chinese authorities for continuing to treat her husband as a prisoner in spite of his release after 19 years of jail time.
Photos posted online by the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) showed Chinese state security police guarding Hada closely, from temporary camps with folding beds in the stairwell of his apartment building in the regional capital Hohhot.
"State security agents squeeze themselves in this small space, no larger than nine square meters, to monitor Hada every day," Hada's wife Xinna told the group.
"This is the so-called freedom Hada is given. The pictures tell you that Hada’s imprisonment is still continuing. Only the place has changed," SMHRIC quoted her as saying.
Hada told RFA on Friday: "Ever since I was released they have told me that I must report on all my activities, and on my thoughts. I have refused to do this."
"I am a citizen and I don't need to put up with this stuff; I already put up with that when I was in jail," he said.
Hada said the authorities had responded by saying he would be under surveillance for two years after his release.
"They follow me on the street whenever I go anywhere," he said. "They would do that whether I spoke out or whether I stayed silent."
Hada, 60, who was released from extrajudicial detention last December, four years after his 15-year jail term for "separatism" and "espionage" ended, suffers from systemic atherosclerosis, liver disease and other conditions he says are a result of years of corporal punishment and abuse in prison.
He and his grown son Uiles were denied a passport earlier this year after they planned to travel overseas so he could seek medical treatment.
Chinese authorities last week jailed Uiles for "obstructing official business" following an altercation with a state security police officer who was following him and Xinna. He is currently being held in a detention center in Bogot (in Chinese, Baotou) city.
According to a copy of a police detention notice seen by RFA, Uiles was sentenced to 10 days' administrative detention, a sentence which can be handed down to perceived minor offenders or troublemakers without the need for a trial, on Oct. 15.
"According to article 50 of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law of the People's Republic of China, Uiles has been sentenced to 10 days' administrative detention for obstructing official business, which is to be served in the Baotou No. 1 Administrative Detention Center," the notice said.
Hada, who suffers from hardening of the arteries, liver disease and other conditions he says are a result of years of corporal punishment and abuse in prison, has continued to speak out against his treatment despite police restrictions forbidding him to engage in political matters or to speak to foreign media.
He has also continued his public support of ethnic Mongolian herders, who are increasingly in conflict with the government and state-owned companies over the exploitation of their traditional grazing lands.
Reported by Zhou Zinan for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.