Hu Jia, an activist sentenced to three and a half years in prison on the charge of “inciting subversion of state power,” was denied medical parole for a condition tentatively labeled liver cancer on Monday.  His wife Zeng Jinyan has been desperately pleading with authorities for his release over the past few weeks.  While Hu had tests performed to try to determine a diagnosis at the end of March, the exact results of the test have still not been released to his family. 

However, according to guards at the prison, Hu’s parole denial was a result of him not being “critically ill” and they charged that he has been “disobedient” and that he will not “be quiet.”  Hu has been legally qualified to apply for medical parole since July of last year, because he has already served over a third of his total sentence.  He was initially put in jail for collaborating with fellow human rights activist Teng Biao on a letter entitled “The Real China and the Olympics” in September of 2007.