Last Tiananmen prisoner released from jail - human rights group

The last-known prisoner jailed for hooliganism in resisting the Chinese government’s crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy movement has been released ahead of the 20th anniversary of the suppression, a human rights group claimed.

The Dui Hua Foundation said today that Liu Zhihua was among a group of workers who organised a factory strike in the central China province of Hunan to protest the June 3-4 military action.

The strike took place at the state-owned Xiangtan Electrical Machinery Works, where more than 10,000 people were employed, and had the added sensitivity of being in Xiangtan, the home town of Mao Zedong, founder of communist China.

The group said Mr Liu was given a life sentence. The sentence was commuted in 1993 to 15 years and was further reduced a few times, most recently in 2008.