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Alert

Cyber-dissident released six months before completing sentence

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has noted the 1 November 2005 release of journalist and cyber-dissident Liu Shui, six months before he was due to complete the two-year sentence of "reeducation through work" that he received in May 2004.

According to the Independent Chinese PEN Centre (ICPC), Liu was given only several hours' warning that he was to be released from the Xili reeducation camp, in the southern province of Guangdong. He had to sign a statement undertaking not to "lie" about his trial and conditions in the camp.

Some of his personal effects, including his writings while in detention, were confiscated by the police without explanation. His relatives said he appeared very weakened by his year and a half in detention.

Liu previously contributed to the daily "Shenzhen Evening News". He was arrested on 2 May 2004 for posting articles on the Internet criticising abuses by the police and other officials. The same day, the Shenzhen public security bureau sentenced him to two years of reeducation without trial.