Tiananmen protest activist found dead under strange circumstances in China

Beijing, June 7 (ANI): A leading Chinese dissident, who was imprisoned after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, has been found dead under strange circumstances, his relatives and rights groups have said.

Zhao Baozhu, Li Wangyang's brother-in-law, said that he saw Li's body in a hospital in the central Chinese city of Shaoyang, The BBC reports.

Chinese officials said Li Wangyang, who was freed from jail a year ago, had hanged himself in hospital, where he was being treated for heart disease and diabetes.

Baozhu has questioned Li's death, saying that he had shown 'no signs of suicide' in a recent get together.

"Last evening we were together, Li Wangyang did not show any signs of suicide; it is strange," Baozhu said.

Li was found dead in his room with a white strip of cloth around his neck hanged to a window bar, Baozhu said.

He said Chinese authorities took away Li's body without approval from the family.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in China said Li died 'unusually'.

"We cannot rule out that security guards monitoring him tortured him to death and faked a suicide," the centre said.

Li, a labour rights activist, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen protests, the centre said.

The center said that Li was released in 2001, but later sentenced to another 10 years for 'inciting subversion'. (ANI)