Chinese dissident Li Wangyang has gone on hunger strike to demand medical treatment for the serious deterioration in his health during 11 years in prison in connection with the 1989 pro-democracy movement, a human rights organisation said Saturday.
Human Rights in China (HRIC) said from New York that Li, 48, stopped eating on Friday to press the communist regime to pay for expensive medical treatment for a range of back, heart and lung problems.
Li has been hospitalized since the start of the year in Daxiang hospital in Shaoyang, Hunan province, but the facility has stopped treating him since January 25, according to HRIC.
Li was released early on medical grounds last June, two years before the end of his 13-year sentence for presiding over the Shaoyang Workers Autonomous Federation, a free trade union, during the 1989 Tianamen Square pro-democracy movement.
Since then he has been unable to walk or hold himself upright without help and is in danger of going blind.
According to HRIC, while in prison he was frequently subjected to severe beatings, which left him unconscious on six occasions. He also held in solitary confinement for long periods and deprived of food -- BEIJING (AFP)
