The New York Time

Thursday, June 17, 1999

China Accuses Former Student Leader

By The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) -- Police say a veteran activist who circulated a petition calling for Chinese to mourn the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests will be charged with disrupting public order, a human rights group said Thursday.

A month after detaining Jiang Qisheng, police told his wife about the charge but wouldn't show her any documents about the case, New York-based Human Rights in China said.

Jiang was a student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and was imprisoned for more than a year after they were crushed by Chinese authorities.

Jiang had circulated a petition calling for Chinese to mark the 10th anniversary of the bloody June 4 crackdown by lighting candles and dressing simply. He also had helped organize petitions for people wounded in the crackdown and the families of those killed.

His wife, Zhang Hong, has asked for his release, saying he rarely went out and didn't have any conflicts with anyone, the human rights group said.

In a separate case, the wife of jailed dissident Wang Youcai plans to file a slander lawsuit against a university professor who accused him of visiting prostitutes, a human rights group said.

Hu Jiangxia wants an apology and damages from Prof. Zhang Hongyi of Beijing Normal University, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

Zhang, who made the accusation on national television, also said Wang had entered China illegally.

Wang was sentenced in December to 11 years in prison on subversion charges. He and other dissidents had tried to start an opposition party, the China Democracy Party.

Zhang said the dissident claimed to organizing an opposition party only after being arrested for other crimes.

Hu denied Wang had visited prostitutes and said he had never left China, making it impossible for him to have re-entered the country.

China has used charges involving prostitution and illegal entry against dissidents living in exile who sneaked back into China.