Activist Tan Zuoren defiant after 5-year prison term for probe into Sichuan earthquake deaths
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 27 March, 2014, 12:33pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 27 March, 2014, 12:33pm
Verna Yu
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An undated file photo of activist Tan Zuoren. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Tan Zuoren, a Chinese activist who was jailed for five years after launching a personal investigation into the deaths of thousands of children in the catastrophic 2008 Sichuan earthquake, was released on Thursday morning, said two fellow activists.
Tan was released from a jail in Yaan, Sichuan Province around 6 am and was reunited with his wife, said Sichuan-based veteran activist Huang Qi. Neither Tan nor his wife could be reached by phone on Thursday morning.
Ran Yunfei, another fellow activist, said he had met Tan after his release, but declined to elaborate.
Huang, a close friend of Tan, said Tan still firmly believed in his mission and had written a lengthy appeal letter in prison, maintaining that he was wrongly accused.
"He firmly believes that he was put in jail because he was framed," he said.
“After his release, he will carry on his rights activism,” he said. “There is no doubt about that.”
After the earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province in May, 2008, Tan campaigned for government investigations into the construction standards of schools in the quake zone, and potential corruption by local officials which many people believed were the main cause of shoddy school buildings. More than 87,000 people were killed or missing in the massive earthquake, including more than 5,000 schoolchildren, according to government statistics.
Tan was arrested on March 28, 2009 and given a five-year prison term the following year on the charge of “inciting subversion of state power”.
His wife had said the authorities had offered to cut his jail term if he confessed or promised he would refrain from participating in human rights activities, but Tan had refused.
Huang, who was himself jailed for three years after investigating the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, said it was highly likely that Tan’s movement and communications would remain tightly monitored after his release.
Although the Sichuan court which convicted and sentenced Tan had accused him of having taken part in a commemoration event of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and slandering the government’s handling of the incident in a 2007 essay, his supporters believe he was jailed because of his independent investigation into school buildings in the 2008 earthquake.
They pointed out he had been charged only after antagonising the authorities by blaming shoddy building for the student deaths. The central government said 5,335 schoolchildren died in the quake - a number that many believe is far too low -- and denied that substandard construction had contributed to their deaths.
