Yao Lifa, a Chinese constitutional scholar and activist in central Hubei province, has suffered multiple injuries after almost a month of secret detention, his wife said following his return home late Sunday.
Yao, 53, who inspired a national movement to field independent candidates in this year's government controlled People's Congress elections, had injuries on his wrists and back, Feng Ling said.
"What's more, they only gave him one-third rations during his detention," she said.
Feng also said that Yao, who was taken from a friend's home in Beijing by national security police on Aug. 7, had also been hospitalized with gall bladder disease after his release at an unknown date.
"They brought him home yesterday evening, about 9.00 p.m.," she said. "He hasn't got much better since then."
Feng said the authorities had gone to enormous lengths to keep Yao's whereabouts a secret, even registering him at the hospital under a false name.
"He was staying at the hospital under another person's name," she said. "They took away all the medical records and medical images with them."
Independent candidates
Yao's disappearance is thought to be linked to recent announcements by popular microbloggers that they intend to stand as independent candidates in elections to local legislatures, which take place across China this year.
Rights groups have expressed concern recently at the large number of extrajudicial detentions, as China cracks down on dissent in the wake of popular uprisings in the Middle East. They say those who are "disappeared" are at greater risk of torture than other detainees.
Fellow Wuhan-based political activist Qin Yongmin said that if proposed changes to China's criminal code currently being debated by the National People's Congress go ahead, detentions like Yao's will become all too commonplace.
"Under the draft criminal justice code, these secret detentions will become reasonable and legal," Qin said, citing proposed changes to current laws that would effectively legalize secret detentions.
"Perhaps the secret detention of Mr. Yao Lifa is advanced warning that these changes will be implemented," he said.
Qin, who spoke to Yao shortly after his release, said the activist had reported being starved in the detention center.
"The authorities adopted a policy of starvation towards him," Qin said. "He only got four ounces of rice per meal, and from Aug. 17-30, he only got two meals a day instead of three."
No clean clothes
He said Yao was subjected to other privations, too.
"They wouldn't give him a towel, and he was never given chance to wash his clothes, or to change into clean clothes," Qin said. "They wouldn't turn on the air-conditioning either."
Summertime temperatures in central China range between 35C and 40C, with high humidity levels.
"They use these sorts of methods to give you a hard time," said Qin, who has himself served two lengthy jail terms for subversion.
Yao is now under heavy surveillance from state security police, Qin said.
"They set up two sentry points as soon as they brought him home," he said.
But he added that Yao had vowed to stand in the Qianjiang People's Congress elections this year.
"He told me that the elections are about to begin in Qianjiang city right now, and that he definitely wanted to stand," Qin said.
"He also said that he would happily give out help and advice to anyone standing in People's Congress elections around the country who wanted it."
Yao's problems with the government date back to 1998, when he became the first independent delegate to be elected to a municipal seat in the Qianjiang People's Congress following a 10-year struggle with local officials.
However, he was shunted aside five years later and has been harassed ever since.
'Legal procedures'
The Chinese authorities have warned that there is "no such thing" as an independent candidate, and that anyone hoping to stand for elections this year to the People's Congress will first have to clear "due legal procedures," the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Apart from a token group of "democratic parties" which never oppose or criticize the ruling Communist Party, opposition political parties are banned in China, and those who set them up are frequently handed lengthy jail terms.
More than two million lawmakers at the county and township levels will be elected during nationwide elections, held every five years, in more than 2,000 counties and 30,000 townships from May 7 through December of next year.
Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.