Tuesday, April 29,1997

Beijing - Police were holding a German reporter in custody Tuesday, one day after he visited family members of imprisoned dissident Wei Jingseng.

Juergen Kremb's passport was seized and he was being held at a hotel in the eastern province of Anhui for questioning.

Kremb, a reporter with Der Spiegel news magazine, said he had been making a private visit to the Wei family in Anhui when he was detained Monday while traveling by taxi with the dissident's brother, Wei Xiaotao.

The visit was "absolutely personal" and had nothing to do with his work for Der Spiegel, Kremb said Tuesday in a telephone interview from the hotel where he was being held.

Wei Xiaotao and their taxi driver also detained, the German news agengy DPA reported.

Kremb said Cinese authorities tried to make him sign a confession sayng he had conducted ilegal interviews for the news magazine, but he refused sayng the accusation was false.

He said he had been permitted to contact German Embassy officials and was seeking their help.

Wei Jingsheng, Cina's best-known dissident, has spent most of the past 17 years in prison. He was given a 14-year sentence in 1995.