China has freed prominent dissident Xu Wenli from prison and sent him into de facto exile in the United States, reports said. Xu had left Yanqing Prison in Beijing and boarded a flight to the United States with his wife, He Xintong, and a US Embassy official, the San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation human rights group said in a statement on Tuesday.
The release comes less than a week after U.S. human rights envoy Lorne Craner visited Beijing to press for the release of Xu and other political prisoners. (Albawaba.com)
