China Frees
Prominent Dissident
The
Associated Press Thursday, Oct. 7, 1999; 7:25 a.m. EDT
BEIJING –– China released a prominent
dissident today at the end of his three-year labor camp sentence he had
received without trial for writing a petition calling for the impeachment
of China's president, a human rights group said.
Liu Xiaobo, 44, was released from an "education through labor" camp in
the northeastern port city of Dalian, the Hong Kong-based Information
Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.
It quoted Liu as saying that his health was good and that he planned to
stay in Dalian for a while before returning to Beijing.
Liu was sentenced without trial in October 1996 after he co-authored a
petition that called for self-determination for Tibet and the impeachment
of President Jiang Zemin.
Liu, a literary critic and author, led a hunger strike among
intellectuals in support of student democracy protesters on Tiananmen
Square in 1989 and served 18 months in prison for his role in the
protests. He was detained again for seven months in 1995 after signing a
petition calling for democracy an the rule of law.
Chinese authorities can send people to labor camps for up to three
years without trial.
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press
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