Tiananmen protester released after 17 years

A Chinese factory worker has been released after serving 17 years in jail for setting fire to a military vehicle during the Tiananmen Square democracy protests, he said today.

Zhang Maosheng was 21 years old in 1989 when he was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve on charges of counterrevolutionary arson.

His sentence was commuted to life in prison and then reduced several times for good behaviour.

Reached at his mother’s Beijing home, Zhang, now 38, confirmed that he was released on September 13 after 17 years and three months in jail.

He declined to speak further, saying that the conditions of his parole forbid him from talking to the media.

Thousands of people were rounded up by authorities after the Chinese military crushed the seven-week, university student-led protest movement on June 4, 1989, killing hundreds.

According to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, 15,000 people were sentenced to death or jail terms following the government’s June 4, 1989 crackdown on student demonstrators.

At least 200 remain in prison now, the centre said.

Many of the harshest sentences were given not to the educated leaders of the protest movement, but to ordinary workers like Zhang who took part in resisting the military assault.

The centre said that Zhang suffers numerous health problems caused by his long prison stay, including an inflamed prostate and kidney stones. Relatives told the centre that Zhang is unsure what he will be able to do now, particularly because he has no education, job or savings.

The US and other governments as well as human rights groups have repeatedly urged China to re-evaluate its actions during the crackdown and to release information about those killed, detained or who disappeared because of the government’s military action.

China’s authoritarian government has stood by the suppression of what it has called “counterrevolutionary” riots, saying it preserved social stability and paved the way for economic growth.

A Beijing Prison Administration duty officer said he had no idea about Zhang’s case. He declined to give his name.