Chinese cyber-dissident Huang Qi, who was convicted of subversion for publishing political information on his Web site, has been freed after completing his five-year sentence, a rights group said yesterday.
However, Huang, who was released from a prison in southwest China's Sichuan province Saturday, has been placed under house arrest, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement.
He was sent by authorities to his parents' house in a village located three hours by train from his own home in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu, and was told he could not leave there without police permission.
Huang, who could not be reached for comment, was often beaten by guards and inmates during his first few months in prison, the media watchdog said.
His health deteriorated further because prison guards forced him to sleep on the ground for a year and a half, it said.
Huang suffers from a stomach ailment, severe headaches and other health problems and will be unable to receive proper medical care in the village, the group added.
His wife and son also will not be able to live with him as they must live in Chengdu where his wife works and his child goes to school.
It was unclear why authorities decided to keep Huang in his parents' home.
"We are very pleased that Huang Qi has finally been reunited with his family after five years of imprisonment during which he was often mistreated," the watchdog group said.
"We nonetheless call for the lifting of his house arrest so that he can go and live in his own home, with his wife and child."
Huang was arrested in June 2000 for creating a "subversive" Web site called www.6-4tianwang.com.
The Web site originally listed information on people who had gone missing, but soon became a forum about people who disappeared into police custody, usually because of their political or religious beliefs.
In other developments, police have detained a Tibetan monk from a monastery in northwest China which contained anti-government posters and further arrests are expected, a US radio station and local police yesterday.
Jigme Dasang, 22, was detained in mid-May during a daily prayer session at the Kumbum Monastery in Huangzhong county, Qinghai province, Radio Free Asia (RFA) said on its Web site.
Sources said there were anti-government posters in the monastery at the time, RFA said. The monastery is also known as Taer Monastery.
An official at the Taer Monastery police station located near the tourist attraction confirmed that Jigme Dasang had been detained.
"Such an incident happened, but I don't know the reason," he told reporters.
The official, who said the arrest could be due to the posters, referred questions to the county's state security division. State security offices handle political crimes, such as dissent or separatism.
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