Dissident held in mental hospital 13 years is sane, rights group says

A veteran dissident held in a psychiatric hospital for 13 years for commemorating the Tiananmen student protests has been found mentally sound by the Netherlands-based Global Initiative on Psychiatry.

Results of the psychiatric assessment of Wang Wanxing , 56, were announced this week by Human Rights Watch.

Mr Wang was sent to a police-run psychiatric hospital after unfurling a banner in Tiananmen Square during a one-man protest on the third anniversary of the student-led pro-democracy movement. He was released from an ankang hospital near Beijing in August, just before a visit to China by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour.

Speaking from Frankfurt, Germany, to where he was deported on his release, Mr Wang welcomed the findings, saying they illustrated China's practice of using psychiatry to suppress dissidents.

He said he was now considering suing the psychiatric hospital where he was detained. 'I have been looking forward to this moment I knew there was nothing wrong with me. Now with the examination results I can tell the world how China treats us by sending mentally healthy people to psychiatric hospitals.'

The examinations of Mr Wang were carried out by two psychiatrists from the Global Initiative on Psychiatry on January 3 and 4. They found no grounds for his incarceration, according to Human Rights Watch. 'We were not able to reveal any form of mental disorder, no signs of depression, psychosis or organic disorder,' the report said.

'There was no reason that Mr Wang had to be locked up in a special forensic psychiatric hospital or admitted to any psychiatric facility. He was not suffering from any mental disorder that could justify his admission.'