The daughter-in-law of China’s jailed former security chief has penned an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping begging to be allowed to return home to the United States after seven years of separation from her family.

Huang Wan is the daughter-in-law of Zhou Yongkang, who was once one of China’s most powerful politicians but is now serving a life sentence in prison over a series of corruption charges. Huang’s husband Zhou Bin was sentenced to 18 years in prison for bribery in 2016.

Huang, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, posted her letter on Twitter on Christmas Day asking Xi for help to “let her go home” after failing to find ways to return home to the U.S. during what she described as “seven years of hell” since her husband’s family had fallen from grace.

The 41-year-old claims that a Beijing court has prevented her from leaving the country on the grounds of a civil lawsuit that has dragged on since last year.

“Their one and only purpose is to keep me in China,” she wrote. “Going home with my children is my one and only wish. My elderly parents are near 80 and have been waiting for me to go home for seven years. Please let us go home.”

In her letter, Huang said she has been “subjected to all kinds of torture and abuse” by Hubei’s public security bureau after being placed under house surveillance when her husband’s family was taken away because of the corruption cases since 2013. She was then placed on probation for another three years, after being involved in an embezzlement case.

Hubei Yichang Intermediate People’s Court asked her on Monday to move out of her house in Hubei within 10 days, as part of court orders to recover her husband’s properties and her assets in relation to Zhou’s bribery case.

“There is no one I can complain to about this, nor do I want to reason with anyone, I just want to go home. I can live without everything else, but please lift my ban on leaving the country. I’ll immediately move out without any delay and let the court take all of my property away,” she said.

Huang said she had only been targeted because she was related to Zhou Yongkang and his family, and not because she had committed any offense. She had also asked to be emancipated from her husband but her appeal was rejected.

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