A top Chinese environmentalist said yesterday he was beaten and suffered brutal treatment while serving a three-year jail term imposed after he spoke out about rampant pollution in a lake.
Wu Lihong (吳立紅) said authorities tried to force him to confess to bogus extortion charges. He vowed to clear his name.
“I am innocent, it’s obvious that the authorities have sought to harm me. I will continue to appeal the conviction and seek to clear my name,” Wu, 42, said by telephone from his home in Yixing, Jiangsu Province.
Wu was arrested in April 2007 and sentenced to three years on extortion charges after campaigning for years against pollution in Taihu Lake, one of China’s biggest freshwater lakes.
Wu, who was released on April 12, said he was repeatedly beaten in jail, kept in solitary confinement and denied telephone contact and visits with family and friends.
“They used tree branches to whip my head, burned my hands with cigarettes and kicked and beat me until my arms and legs were swollen and my head was spinning,” Wu said.
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