via Gândul “living hell forever, for the five imprisoned in China as of 2017. ”If you don’t have cleaned up the floor, you don’t get the extra food out of your money”
Translated from Romanian
Endless ordeal for the Romanian woman imprisoned in China since 2017. “If you didn’t wash the floor well, you no longer have the right to additional food from your money”
The food that the inmates receive in the prison where Alina is is insufficient, and an extra portion of food counts a lot
Published on: 11/2/2024
In December, it will be 7 years since the Romanian Alina Apostol was imprisoned in a prison in China. For the 34-year-old, every day behind bars means a battle between hopelessness and hope. In addition to the harsh conditions in the penitentiary, very harsh sanctions are applied to inmates who do not perform a task impeccably.
- The food is insufficient, and if they haven’t washed the floor well, they don’t get the extra portion of food, bought, anyway, with their own money.
- The hard life in prison destroyed Alina’s health, and there is no question of adequate treatment in the penitentiary.
For 7 years, a Romanian woman has been living in the hell of a prison in China. Alina Apostol was convicted of credit card fraud and received a sentence of 13 years and 6 months in prison. Her family fights to get her out of communist hell and transferred to a prison in the country.
The girl’s parents sold the apartment she had in Bucharest, in order to pay the fine of 56,000 euros, established by the Chinese state. They hoped that once they managed to raise this money, their daughter would be brought into the country.
However, the Romanian authorities could not guarantee them that if the money was paid, Alina would be extradited. According to the Ministry of Justice, the payment of pecuniary sanctions does not represent a guarantee that the Chinese authorities will accept the transfer of the young woman to Romania.
Alina Apostol is waiting every day for news about her transfer home, but the negotiations at the level of the Romanian and Chinese authorities have proven extremely difficult.
Memorandum for the negotiation of a treaty between Romania and China
In the spring, the Ministry of Justice from Romania gave assurances that it is in correspondence with the Ministry of Justice from the People’s Republic of China, in order to expedite the resolution of this file.
In June, the Government adopted a memorandum approving the negotiation of a treaty between Romania and the People’s Republic of China regarding the transfer of convicted persons. The role of the document is to provide the opportunity for definitively convicted persons to serve their sentence in their social environment of origin, thus favoring their social reintegration.
The memorandum presents a draft treaty, developed by the Romanian side, regarding the transfer of convicted persons, which was to be transmitted to the Chinese side in order to formulate a counter draft.
For months, however, the girl’s parents have not received any information from either the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“If you didn’t do something, you don’t even get the 10 dollars anymore”
During this time, Alina lives an unimaginable nightmare every day . The conditions in the communist prison are very harsh and the punishments commensurate. People from Alina’s family spoke, for Gândul, about the punishments applied to prisoners in certain situations.
“They have the right to receive from home the sum of 86 dollars per month. I can spend half of the money on extra food and half on hygiene products. However, they do not receive the full amount, but as much as the prison management deems. I can only receive $30 or $10, for example,” said a source close to the Apostol family for Gândul.
However, the punishments can reach the situation where the prisoner does not receive even one dollar of the money sent by the family. Thus, in that month, he will no longer benefit from additional food or the possibility to purchase hygiene products.
“Since you didn’t do something, you don’t even get the 10 dollars anymore. If you didn’t wash the floor well, you no longer have the right to additional food from your money”, the person close to Alina’s family also told us.
“They stopped giving her food, because she bought books”
One day, Alina bought some books in English. The money she paid for the books was deducted from his $86.
“During that month, they stopped giving her food, because she bought books,” added our source.
All these punishments, but also the deprivation of food, mean both mental and physical torture. The already frail body of the Romanian began to gradually succumb under these pressures. The same sources say that the young woman has severe stomach pains, has become hypertensive and her teeth are breaking. Although the family expressed their willingness to pay for Alina to be taken to a civilian medical facility for treatment, this was not possible.
“The family made efforts to take her to a civil hospital, but they are not allowed. They were willing to pay for any treatment, but the young woman told them there was no chance”, added the close friend of the Apostol family.
The state of health of the young woman, has degraded so much in the 7 years she spent in the Chinese jail.
She ended up in jail for credit card fraude.
A graduate of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, the speaker of four languages, Alina Apostol in a prison located in the province of Fujian, in southeast China, on charges of fraud using her credit card.
Alina worked as a translator at a law firm run by three people: one Romanian, one Chinese and one Syrian. The young woman knew the Romanian from her country, he had made an offer to work for a tourist agency.
He her to be the manager of a travel agency, which he was to open in Beijing. The Romanian though didn’t taste the success of her dream together with her boss, but she ended up in jail.
A ticket from 56,000 €
The young woman is not, and has never admitted guilt. She was sentenced,, however, to 13 years and 6 months imprisonment, a fine of over 56,000 euros and ordered to pay 217,000 dollars, jointly with the other defendants.
The Romanian Court of Appeal has ordered the transfer of the Romanian to Romania and serve the equivalent of the sentence, according to the Romanian law, with a sentence of 9 years and 4 months in prison.
For what she supposedly did, the maximum penalty in Romania may not be more than 9 years and 4 months.. However, the procedure for the transfer seems to be going in circles, much to the dismay of the hopeless young woman.
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