**Updates IFEX alerts of 26 January 2000, 21 and 20 January 1999 and 9 December 1998** (RSF/IFEX) – RSF has learned that Lin Hai, a Chinese “cyber dissident” who was arrested in March 1998 and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for inciting to overthrow the State, was secretly released in September 1999. Chinese authorities released […]
**Updates IFEX alerts of 26 January 2000, 21 and 20 January 1999 and 9 December 1998**
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has learned that Lin Hai, a Chinese “cyber dissident” who was arrested in March 1998 and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for inciting to overthrow the State, was secretly released in September 1999. Chinese authorities released him six months ahead of his previously scheduled release date in exchange for his silence.
One “cyber dissident” remains imprisoned in China. Qi Yanchen, an activist with the dissident group Union for the Development of China, was arrested on 2 September by police in Poutou (Hebei province) while preparing to print and distribute “VIP Reference”, an information bulletin on human rights and the Chinese democratic movement distributed via e-mail and the Internet (see IFEX alerts of 26 January 2000 and 3 September 1999).
