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Chinese gov’t releases cyber-dissident

Chinese authorities have released Internet writer Qi Yanchen from prison, more than a year earlier than expected, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontieres, RSF) has learned. Qi was released from Prison No. 4 in Beijing’s Shijiazhuang district on 1 May 2003 after serving more than two years of a four-year sentence. (via IFEX Communique)

Arrested in September 1999, he was sentenced to jail in September 2000 on charges of “subversion” and “distributing anti-government news,” RSF says. An economist, Qi had posted articles on the Internet advocating democracy. After his release, he received medical treatment in Cangzhou, Hebei province, RSF says. He suffers from colitis, gallstones and an inner ear infection. Since August, he has been working for a private company in Beijing.
China remains the world’s leading jailer of journalists and Internet users, with 37 currently imprisoned, says RSF.