Ethnic Mongolian dissident Hada issued an open letter on Tuesday to the United Nations Human Rights Council, seeking to put pressure on Chinese officials to end the punishments his family continues to suffer long after his release from two decades in prison.

The veteran rights activist, who is 60, was released from extrajudicial detention in December, four years after his 15-year jail term for "separatism" and "espionage" ended. He said in January that authorities in Inner Mongolia had frozen his bank account, and he now says his family is in dire straits.

"The content of the letter is to request UN officials to deal with Chinese officials to solve the problem of my bank account being frozen," he told RFA's Mandarin Service.

"If the UN fails to take action right away, our family will have to beg for food," he said in a telephone interview.

"I was jailed for 19 years and, during the 19 years, I was illegally detained for 4 years. I was tortured for quite a long time, causing many illnesses," he said in an interview. He said his family's livelihood suffered because his bookstore was confiscated and his son was unable to find work as a result of his ordeal.

"The family totally depends on donations from friends to make a living. We almost used up all the savings. Our bank account was frozen by public security," said Hada.

Hada told RFA he is trying to highlight his family's plight as Chinese delegates gather in Beijing for the annual meetings of the advisory Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee and the National People's Congress, China's parliament.

"Since China has vowed to use the Constitution to run the country, rule of law is the only option. My purpose of writing this letter is to get attention of the delegates who attend NPC and CPPCC so that they can take concrete measure to ensure the implementation of rule of law," said Hada.

A commitment to rule of law would mean "our case could be re-evaluated, so we can live a normal life with freedom," he said.

Xinna, Hada's wife, echoed her husband, noting that ruling China according to law is one of the "Four Comprehensives" comprising the major political slogan of President Xi Jinping.

"To comprehensively rule the country according to law is one of them," Xinna told RFA.

The other three exhortations of Xi are to comprehensively build a moderately prosperous society, to comprehensively deepen reform and to comprehensively apply strictness in governing the party.

"I hope the Chinese government can implement the rule of law the earliest so that our family problem can be solved sooner rather than later. For the time being, although Hada had been released, he is not free," said Xinna.