CHINESE dissident Wang Dan (27), a student leader in the 1989 pro democracy movement, is to be tried in Beijing on Wednesday on charges of subversion and conspiracy to help other dissidents. His mother, Ms Wang Lingyun (63), said at the weekend that she and another lawyer would defend Mr Wang at the trial.
Beijing No I Intermediate People's Court announced on Friday that the trial would be open and that Mr Wang's father and elder sister would be invited to attend. Wang's mother said she did not expect foreign media or international observers would be allowed into the court room. The case of Wang Dan has become the focus of international attention, and the trial comes just two weeks before visits by US Secretary of State Mr Warren Christopher and Swedish Prime Minister Mr Go ran Persoon.
An international team of observers assembled by US human rights groups has applied for permission to observe the proceedings. It includes two former US attorneys general, Mr Divck Thornburgh and Mr Nicholas Katzenbach.
Mr Wang was first arrested a month after the pro democracy demonstrations were crushed by the army in June 1989, and sentenced to four years' imprisonment on charges of counter revolutionary propaganda and incitement. A former history student, he has also been charged with publishing anti government articles in the Hong Kong and Taiwan press, and taking a correspondence course with the University of California, according to agency reports.
If convicted he faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. Another Chinese dissident, Mr Wang Xizhe, fled to the United States from his home in the southern China province of Guangdong earlier this month to escape arrest as China adopted a tough line on opposition figures.
Last week, Mr Wei Jingsheng, who spent most of the last two decades in prison for his outspoken comments on human rights and political issues, was awarded the 1996 Sakharov prize for freedom of thought by the European Parliament. Last December he was given a further 14 year sentence. Beijing condemned the award as a "gross, interference in China's domestic affairs and the country's judicial sovereignty."