Chinese Dissident Ill After Hunger Strike
Tue Apr 13,11:05 PM ET
By JOE MCDONALD, Associated Press Writer
BEIJING – An imprisoned former leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests is in critical condition after a five month hunger strike to protest his conviction on what he says are false charges, a human rights group said Wednesday.
Zhang Ming was sentenced in September to seven years in prison on charges related to his Shanghai business, New York-based Human Rights in China said.
Zhang, 39, launched the hunger strike in November “to protest his harsh sentence on what he claims are bogus charges,” the group said. It said he has lost 50 pounds and “been reduced to a skeletal condition.”
Zhang was a leader of the 1989 protests and was No. 19 on the government’s “most wanted” list following the military crackdown that killed hundreds and possibly thousands of demonstrators. He was captured and sentenced to three years in prison.
The latest charges stem from Zhang’s “refusal to recant his political principles or express regret for his previous actions, and the ill feeling and envy that his financial success aroused among Chinese officials,” Human Rights in China said.
Zhang was arrested in September in connection with an alleged plot to blow up a building, the group said. It claimed that after authorities decided his dedication to his business made it difficult to support claims of violence, he was convicted of “abuse of executive benefits.” It didn’t give any details of the charge.
Chinese authorities have been accused of using false criminal charges to attack other dissidents and others critical of communist rule.
Zhang isn’t known to have engaged in any recent political activity.
At his trial, Zhang’s lawyers were denied access to some prosecution materials, Human Rights in China said.
He launched an earlier hunger strike to protest his lack of an open trial, Human Rights in China said. It said authorities punished him by leaving him bound to a bed for 113 hours without toilet facilities.
“The available information strongly suggests that Zhang Ming has been denied a fair trial on purely political grounds,” Human Rights in China president Liu Qing said in the statement.
“It is completely unacceptable for the justice system to be used as a tool of political oppression,” Liu said. “Zhang Ming should be granted a fair and open retrial, and in the meantime he should be provided with all necessary medical attention to treat his fragile physical condition.”
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 