He Depu


He Depu is a dissident in the People's Republic of China.

Biography

He was employed at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. Political activist who took part in the Democracy Wall movement, he was founder of Beijing Youth magazine in 1979.
In 1998, he helped found the proscribed China Democracy Party, but lost his job at the Social Sciences Academy after standing as a candidate in local elections in 1990.
He Depu was tried in a two-hour hearing on 14 October 2002 for his links to the outlawed China Democracy Party, of which he is a member, and for posting essays on the Internet that "incited subversion."
He was one of the 192 signatories of an open letter to the Sixteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November 2002.
On 4 November 2002, he was arrested, and received an eight-year sentence for dissident activity on the Internet on 6 November 2003.
In 2008, he is still in prison and his health is deteriorating in Beijing No. 2 Prison. He suffers from high blood pressure and does not receive appropriate treatment. In August 2008 he sent a letter to International Olympic Committee head Jacques Rogge, decrying the conditions in Chinese prisons, which he claims to have worsened.
He Depu was released from prison on January 24, 2011. The day of his release he was beaten by four police officers.