China frees last "hooligan" from 1989 democracy protests

Beijing - China has freed the last prisoner known to have been convicted of 'hooliganism' after the 1989 democracy movement, a US-based rights group said Tuesday. Liu Zhihua was released this year from Loudi prison in the central province of Hunan after serving almost 20 years, the Dui Hua Foundation said. 'According to Dui Hua's records, Liu Zhihua was the last leader of an autonomous workers federation - independent labour unions set up during the spring 1989 protests - serving a prison sentence,' John Kamm, Dui Hua's executive director, said in a statement. 'His release brings closer the day when no one in China is serving a sentence for offences committed on or around June 4, 1989,' Kamm said. Dui Hua said it remained possible that other prisoners convicted of hooliganism after the 1989 protests were still in prison. 'However, Liu Zhihua is the last one about whom the Chinese government has regularly released information in human rights dialogues with other governments and bodies like the International Labour Organization,' the group said. Last week, Dui Hua urged China to release the estimated 30 people still imprisoned for their role in a democracy movement that was crushed by troops 20 years ago. Liu, 44, was released after receiving a two-year sentence reduction in December, the group quoted a 'reliable source in China' as saying. He and three other leaders of an independent workers union in Hunan's Xiangtan city were originally sentenced to life in prison for hooliganism, which Dui Hua called a 'vaguely defined offence' that was removed from China's criminal law in 1997. Liu reportedly made anti-government speeches to crowds of protestors in 1989. Dui Hua said Liu's sentence was commuted in 1993 to 15 years in prison, later increased by five years for fighting, and then reduced by two years in 2001 'after renewed international interest in his case.' Kamm, a US citizen, is a former businessman who for the past 18 years has used his connections in China to lobby officials to reduce sentences or release prisoners. The 1989 protests ended when troops with tanks and live ammunition moved through Beijing overnight on June 3-4, 1989, reportedly killing hundreds of unarmed civilians who allegedly blocked their route. Demonstrators, who congregated in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, had urged the government to end corruption and allow democracy and other political and social rights.