BBC Monitoring
Source: Central News Agency web site, Taipei, in English 0720 gmt 10 Feb 03/BBC
Monitoring/(c) BBC

Monday, February 10, 2003

Text of report in English by Taiwanese Central News Agency web site

Hong Kong, 10 February: A group of pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong's "April Fifth Movement" organization staged a demonstration Mondaymorning [10 February] in front of Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong to protest against prominent dissident Wang Bingzhang's life sentence.

Wang, 55, has been a fearless critic of the Communist Chinese regime for nearly 20 years. He was sentenced Monday by a law court in Shenzhen,Guangdong Province to life imprisonment on charges of espionage and leading a terrorist group.

His daughter Wang Qingyan said in the United States in a telephone interview with Hong Kong news media that her father was tried in secretin a mainland Chinese court and was given a harsh and unfair sentence.

She said she hoped human rights groups in the world would help her father regain freedom.

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