Shanghai activist dies hours after medical parole

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese activist who fought forced evictions and was jailed for two years for disturbing court order has died hours after he was released on medical parole, a New York-based human rights watchdog said on Friday.

Shanghai authorities had repeatedly rejected applications by Chen Xiaoming's family to release him on parole for treatment for a chronic illness, Human Rights in China said in an e-mail.

When the activist was transferred to Shanghai's Tilanqiao Prison Hospital from Baimaoling Prison in late June, his family found him "reduced to a skeletal condition, constantly vomiting blood and barely conscious", the group said.

The authorities eventually approved Chen's parole application and he was transferred to another Shanghai hospital on July 1, but died hours later after a massive haemorrhage.

Human Rights in China deplored Shanghai authorities' repeated denial to grant medical parole to Chen. His family was allowed only one prison visit.

"There are also indications that ill treatment and beatings in prison were major factors in Chen's death," the group said.

A spokeswoman for the Shanghai city government, reached by telephone, denied knowledge of the case but said "the channel to petition (the government) was open".

Chen was one of seven Chinese activists awarded the 2006 Housing Rights Defender Award by the Geneva-based Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions.