Published by Tibet News Digest - December 1995

Reuters reports that Wei Jingsheng, the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize nominee widely regarded as the father of China's modern democracy movement, was convicted of sedition. Wei's five hour trial and sentence of 14 years brought immediate protests from the United States, Britain, France and Germany. His subsequent appeal was denied. Wei was first jailed in 1979 and paroled in 1993, six months before the end of a 15 year sentence in an unsuccessful campaign to win the 2000 Summer Olympics. Wei disappeared into China's security apparatus in April 1994 soon after meeting a senior U.S. human rights official. He was formally charged in November 1995.