Beijing, October 2. China is arresting political activists for common crimes in order to destroy their credibil-ity, two human rights groups charged in a statement released today. "The Chinese government is increasingly using false or frivolous criminal charges to arrest or convict political activists in a clear attempt to discredit them both at home and abroad", the US-based Human Rights Watch/Asia and Human Rights in China said in the statement faxed to Beijing. The groups said that of 12 known cases of human rights advocates and political dissidents formally charged or sentenced this year, all have been accused of crimes ranging from embezzlement to fraud to hooliganism and not of political offenses. They singled out the case of Tong Yi, 26-year-old assistant to prominent dissident Wei Jingsheng, who was charged with forging an official seal on documents prepared to apply to study in the United States. "Such a minor forgery would not normally merit prosecution, but in Tong Yi's case, such prosecution was

clearly political", the groups said. China's criminal law calls for a prison sentence of up to three years for forging, altering or stealing an official seal. In especially serious cases, the penalty can be as high as 10 years. Wei himself has been in detention since April 1 with no official word on what offense he will be charged with. The statement from the human rights groups said they had learned of another 104 people arrested in connection with the June 4, 1989 army crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests with many still imprisoned. (EuroTibet News N·3)