Chinese dissident freed, heads for US

Public security officials summoned family members in Beijing on Saturday and prevented them from returning home or leaking news of the release until they met Wei at the airport just prior to his departure, sources close to the family said. No confirmation of his release was available from Chinese authorities as of midday (0400 GMT). At the time of his departure, a heavy police presence blanketed Beijing’s Capital Airport.

Wei Jingsheng, 47, had been held at Tangshan jail, 120 kilometres from Beijing, since being sentenced to 14 years in December 1995 for sedition. Reports of his declining health have prompted repeated requests from his family for medical parole recently.

He was one of the prime movers behind the 1978-79 Democracy Wall movement and has been a strong candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in recent years.The leading dissenter had enjoyed a total of only six months of freedom in the last 18 years and has previously consistently resisted official pressure to leave the country. The release coincides with a US visit by Justice Minister Xiao Yang, and Beijing has repeatedly stated Wei’s case was a judicial, not a political, matter.

Mike Jendrzejczyk, the Washington director of US-based Human Rights Watch, said the timing of the release “certainly suggested” it was brokered between the two governments during President Jiang Zemin’s visit, which ended two weeks ago.