China Ridicules Reports of Beatings Suffered by Prominent Dissident

Reports that veteran dissident Wei Jingsheng has been beaten by other prisoners and is in ill health are “sheer fabrications,” China’s Justice Ministry said Saturday.

The statement issued via the state-run New China News Agency was China’s first direct comment on reports by his family and human rights groups that Wei was severely injured by prisoners hoping to get reduced sentences for attacking him.

The 46-year-old Wei, China’s most famous dissident, is serving a 14-year sentence at a prison in northern Hebei province, near Beijing, for advocating democratic reforms.

Reports of the attack drew an expression of “concern” from the U.S. government and protests from groups concerned with Wei’s case.

An unnamed “leading official” from the Justice Ministry’s prison department accused Wei himself of beating a prisoner who stopped him from breaking into a prison warehouse, the news agency said.

“Wei flew into a rage, damaged the door by kicking it and beat up the inmate, but the inmate did not strike back,” the official was quoted as saying.

The comment said that because Wei had demonstrated an “improved attitude,” he was not penalized for the incident.

Wei’s family told foreign reporters and the New York-based group Human Rights in China last week that Wei has been repeatedly beaten. In one incident, he was beaten by another inmate who was given a reduced sentence as a “reward,” the family said.