BEIJING — Prominent artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, the highest-profile anti-government critic arrested during a months-long crackdown on activists, was released on bail late Wednesday and allowed to return home.
The release was first reported by China’s official news agency, Xinhua.
Reuters news service quoted Ai as saying in English, “I’m sorry, I can’t (talk). I am on probation. Please understand.”
Xinhua said Ai was released “because of his good attitude in confessing his crimes as well as a chronic disease he suffers from.”
Since his arrest April 3, Chinese authorities have publicly accused Ai of evading taxes on Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., a company he controls.
His sister, Gao Ge, denied that Ai was guilty of evading taxes. “He didn’t evade the tax,” she said. “Never. It’s just their excuse.”
Ai was arrested at Beijing’s main airport as he was about to board a flight to Hong Kong. He was kept in an undisclosed location, and his wife was allowed to see him only once, on May 15.
Ai was the latest in a list of dozens of activists detained this year following anonymous Internet calls for a Middle East-style “jasmine revolution” in China against the country’s ruling Communist Party authorities. The Washington Post
