It took less than 10 minutes Friday for a Chinese court to reject dissident Wang Dan's appeal of an 11-year prison sentence for subversion.
Wang was given no chance to argue his case, his mother, Wang Ling-yun, said.Only the judge spoke, announcing the decision of the Beijing Higher Level People's Court to uphold the trial court's verdict.
"I'm extremely angry," Wang Lingyun said in a telephone interview from her home. "Afterward, I just sat outside the court in protest."
The state-run Xinhua News Agency did not immediately report the decision, and court officials did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.
The scene outside the courthouse in western Beijing was a reprise of Wang's Oct. 30 trial. Uniformed and plainclothes police patrolled the area. Foreign reporters were kept cordoned off several hundred yards from the entrance.
Police told reporters to leave the area, saying it had been placed off- limits for those without special permission. A photographer for Agence France Presse was detained briefly and released.
Outside Wang's family home Friday morning, a dozen police officers pushed reporters out of the way as they escorted Wang Ling-yun and her husband, Wang Xian-zeng, down an alley and onto a public bus.
Police pulled two reporters, one from Hong Kong's TVB television and one from The Associated Press, off the bus and confiscated film, video and audio tapes.
Chinese Communist Party leaders have used Wang's conviction to signal their intention to silence all dissent. Yet they have been careful not to arouse public resentment. No reports of the trial or appeal have been published or aired by state-run media.
The decision to deny Wang's appeal signals the Chinese government's intention to remain firm on treatment of dissidents despite international criticism.
U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday. Foreign Ministry spokesman Cui Tiankai told reporters Thursday that Christopher was free to discuss human rights during his stay as long as he doesn't "meddle in internal affairs."
Unlike many older dissidents who have languished in prison for years, Wang is known by many Chinese, especially in Beijing.
As a Beijing University student, he helped organize the massive student-led protests that brought more than a million people into Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Wang served 3 1/2 years of a four-year sentence for his role in the 1989 protests.