Canada seeks access to jailed Falun Gong follower in China

The Canadian embassy requested access to Zhang Kunlun, a dual passport holder sentenced to three years of "reform through labour", in accordance with normal practice for all Canadian citizens detained abroad, press officer Jennifer May said.

Chinese officials had not responded to the request, and Zhang's case was complicated by him apparently entering China using his Chinese passport, May said. Police in Jinan, Shandong province, sentenced Zhang to three years at the Liuchangshan labour camp, giving him the maximum term allowed under China's controversial "reform through labour" system, the Hong Kong based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Police did not grant Zhang the protection normally given to foreigners because he used the Chinese passport to enter the country, the centre said. The sentence was passed on November 15 for unspecified crimes, after Zhang went on hunger strike while in detention last month, it said. Zhang, a former sculpture professor from Shandong, moved to Canada in 1989 but returned to teach in the province in 1996.

The centre also said two more Falun Gong members have died in police custody in separate incidents, making 78 such deaths since the government banned the movement in July last year.

The U.N. plans to push China to abolish "reform through labour", under which Chinese citizens can be sentenced to up to three years at a labour camp without any trial or right of appeal, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said in Beijing on November 21.

(la/dpa)