LABOUR activist Liu Nianchun was released yesterday after more than four months in detention, but plain-clothes police continued to keep a close watch on his home in Beijing, the dissident's wife Chu Hailan said.
Ms Chu said her husband had been kept under police guard at a guesthouse in the Haidian district of Beijing after he was picked up by police officers in late May.
Speaking briefly over the telephone, Mr Liu said police told him that he had been detained because he had broken the law by making public reports of the formation of the League for the Protection of the Rights of the Working People and by recruiting members before it had been officially recognised.
Although the police said he had broken the regulation, they also said his action had not gone far enough to constitute a crime.
Along with lawyer Zhou Guoqiang, Mr Liu, 46, is one of the main activists behind the league.
Despite Mr Liu's release yesterday, there was still no word on the condition of Mr Zhou, who was detained at around the same time as Liu.
