Paying the Price for Activism
Labour activist Zhang Shanguang, currently serving a ten-year sentence for leaking state secrets has been beaten up in Hunan's No.1 Prison in Yuanjiang city. According to Human Rights in China, Zhang was repeatedly kicked and punched by prison guards after he organised a petition to end torture and long working hours at the jail. Other prisoners who signed the petition were also beaten.
Zhang Shanguang was arrested in 1998 after he attempted to legally register the Shupu County Association for the Rights of Laid-off Workers and filed reports with foreign media about labour and peasant unrest. He is ill with tuberculosis and his wife is lobbying for his release on medical parole.
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Online: 2001-06-15