CHINA:HU SHIGEN, one of China's longest-held political prisoners, was freed yesterday after serving 16 years of a 20-year jail sentence. CLIFFORD COONANreports.
Mr Hu (53) was jailed as a counter-revolutionary after he tried to commemorate the third anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on the democracy movement. He was formerly a lecturer at the Beijing Languages Institute.
His release comes just two days after the end of the Beijing Olympics, which were characterised by a tough crackdown on dissent and several draconian measures to stop any non-state-controlled forms of public expression.
Mr Hu's family came from their hometown in the southern province of Jiangxi for his release and said he would travel there to pay respects to his mother, who died in 1999 but whose funeral he was not allowed to attend.
A graduate of the elite Tsinghua University, Mr Hu did not make any comments as he remains deprived of his political rights for four more years and is not allowed to talk to the media.
Mr Hu helped found the China Freedom and Democracy Party in 1991. The following year he was arrested for defying a ban against commemorating victims of the June 4th, 1989, military crackdown on nationwide student-led demonstrations for democracy, which were centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
At a closed trial in July 1994, Mr Hu was charged with counter-revolution, basically for passing out pamphlets advocating political reform, which the government said was an effort to head a counter-revolutionary group and spread counter-revolutionary propaganda. He was accused of calling for "the overthrow of the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist system".
Mr Hu was sentenced in December 1994 along with more than 10 co-defendants in what was a high-profile case internationally. His sentence was reduced periodically over the years.
Others in the group, including doctor Kang Yuchun and chemical factory worker Liu Jingsheng, were given stiff sentences but have already been released.
Mr Hu's health suffered badly during his period in jail. His eyesight deteriorated to the point of near blindness; he was malnourished, had intestinal problems, back pain and has a disfigured finger that was broken and never treated. The dissidents remained defiant over the years and shouted slogans such as "long live democracy" during appeals against their heavy sentences.