Mao Hengfeng was sentenced in December 2006 to two and a half years in prison for breaking two table lamps.

While in soft detention' in a small Shanghai guesthouse, police beat her and forced her to share cramped quarters with six men and women. Mao Hengfeng has petitioned the authorities on family planning and housing issues and has been detained many times in the past. She has reported torture and other abusive treatment.

Amnesty believes that Mao Hengfeng is a prisoner of conscience and that the current charges against her have been used as a pretext to punish her for petitioning.

Her trial was evidently unfair and her sentence disproportionate to the crime of which she was convicted.

Please write calling for the immediate and unconditional release of prisoner of conscience Mao Hengfeng.

Send appeals to: Mr Pan Hejun Charged Affaires, Embassy of the People's Republic of China, 49-51 Portand Place, London, W1B 4JL.