Chinese dissident released after 12-year jail term
co-founder of a would-be Chinese opposition political party was released Monday after completing a 12-year prison term for endangering state security. Qin Yongmin said he was transported to a police station in his home city of Wuhan early in the morning. Officers confiscated his prison writings and warned him not to speak to reporters or meet other dissidents before allowing him to return home, Qin told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
"I tried to tell them it was illegal but they just stole everything I had written," Qin said. Qin was given one of the harshest sentences among the organizers of the China Democracy Party who were charged with endangering state security after seeking to register the group in 1998.Qin, 57, has a history of political activism dating back three decades, and had already spent a number of years in detention. (AP)
