Dissident 'released after 16 years in prison'

A human rights groups says a veteran democracy advocate has been released by Chinese authorities after serving 16 years in prison.

The group Human Rights in China says Hu Shigen, 53, was released after serving the majority of his 20-year sentence for “carrying out counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement” and “organising a counterrevolutionary group”.

Mr Hu, a lecturer at Beijing Languages Institute, had helped set up a political party and an independent trade union.

He had also been active in planning activities to commemorate victims of the government’s June 1989 military crackdown in Tiananmen Square.

Mr Hu was arrested in 1992 and convicted in 1994.