Formerly a worker at the Xiangtan Electrical Machinery Plant, Liu Zhihua was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 1989 for taking part in a mass protest against the government’s June 4 crackdown that year on the pro-democracy movement. (For further details of this incident and of the specific charges brought against Liu, see the case of Liu Jian 刘健) In September 1993, his sentence was reduced to 15 years' imprisonment with five years' subsequent deprivation of political rights, but in 1997 his sentence was extended by five years after he allegedly committed ''injury with intent'' in prison. His effective combined sentence then became 16 years' imprisonment (sentence to run from January 1997 to January 2013). In June 2001, Lui Zhihua’s sentence was again reduced by two years, and he is now due to be released on 16 January 2011. He is currently being held at the Hunan Provincial No.6 Prison (Longxi Prison).
June 2005
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