A jailed Chinese dissident has been severely beaten by his cellmates, apparently under orders from prison guards, RFA�s Mandarin service reports.
Wang Jinbo's medical condition is unknown. Sources who asked not to be named said prison officials have taken no measures against the assailants and appear to have ordered the beatings. Wang is serving a four-year sentence in a prison in Jinan City in Shandong Province.
Prison authorities have denied repeated requests by Wang�s father to contact Wang, who recently spent his 31st birthday in prison.
"His father, who had not seen his son for three months, went to the prison on Oct. 20 and was again denied the visit on grounds it would interfere with his son's reform," one source said.
Wang, a former member of the China Democracy Party, was sentenced to four years� imprisonment in December 2001 for publishing essays on the Internet calling for a reassessment of the prodemocracy protests that rocked China in 1989. His appeal was denied.
Amnesty International, which considers Wang a prisoner of conscience, reported in February that Wang had been subject to repeated attacks that prison authorities neglected to investigate. #####
