The wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng, Xu Yan, has eventually managed to see her husband for the first time in three years via video call, which came unexpectedly as she was on her way to support another human rights lawyer.

The 54-year-old Yu was sentenced to four years in prison last June for inciting subversion of state power, after he was secretly tried by an intermediate people’s court in China’s northwestern Jiangsu province in May 2019.

Xu had not been able to visit Yu, with detention center officers attributing the decision to the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn’t until Thursday afternoon that the detention center allowed the pair to have a video meeting.

“[I] have persisted for three years. So many legal rights were deprived,” she said on Twitter. “Suddenly, we are allowed to meet one another. I couldn’t believe it … My mind was completely blank all of a sudden.”

Xu told Apple Daily that her husband’s health condition was “very bad,” and he could no longer write with his right hand and had lost his teeth.

Police also sprayed chili water on Yu, and prevented him from eating enough and reading books over the past six months, she said.

Xu was on her way to support human rights lawyer Lu Siwei, who was due to attend a hearing about the revocation of his practicing certificate.

Lu was targeted by Chinese authorities after assisting the family of one of the 12 detained Hongkongers, who were intercepted by the Guangdong coast guard attempting to flee to Taiwan last August.

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