Yan Zhengxue, a 50-year-old painter and deputy of the People’s Congress of Zhejiang province, has been assigned without formal charge or trial to two years’ “re-education through labour”. The pretext for his sentence was an alleged bicycle theft but it is feared that he was detained as a result of his efforts to bring to justice three police officers who assaulted him in Haidan Police Station in July 1993. He now suffers from hypertension and is reportedly not receiving treatment.
