"I know my husband is innocent" (博讯boxun.com)

　　Zeng Li, the wife of jailed web site creator Huang Qi, accused the Chinese authorities of persecuting and torturing her husband in an exclusive interview with French TV station TF1's news presenter Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, conducted in Chengdu in southwestern China and broadcast during the TF1 8 pm news programme yesterday.

　　A transcript of the entire interview, including parts not broadcast by TF1, is available in English on www.rsf.org.

　　³Yes, he was beaten. He has a long scar on his forehead and he has lost a tooth,² Zeng said in the interview, which she gave despite the dangers it entailed. ³He went into a coma once for several days after being badly beaten. Former fellow inmates told me he was beaten on his genitals.²

　　Zeng told Poivre d'Arvor she feared her husband would not be released at the end of his sentence: ³They never stick to dates and deadlines.² Zeng, who has been allowed to see her husband only once, in October 2003, accused the prison authorities of persecuting him. ³He refuses to stop writing in prison, so the guards beat him regularly. I think they have orders from their superiors to beat him.²

　　Arrested on 3 June 2000, on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 4 June 1989, Huang was prosecuted under articles 103 and 105 of the criminal code and was sentenced to five years in prison for "subversion" and "attempting to overthrow the state". Huang originally created a site to carry notices about missing persons in China.

　　Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of Huang and the 42 other Chinese cyber-dissidents being held for posting pro-democracy articles and messages on the Internet. (博讯boxun.com)