787 Put on Trial in Beijing Crackdown : China: A court official says most were accused of physical acts during the 1989 crushing of the pro-democracy movement in the capital.

Trials have been conducted for 787 people arrested in the 1989 crackdown on China’s pro-democracy movement, while a much larger number of protesters were jailed without charges but ultimately released, a top court official said Wednesday.

In a report to the National People’s Congress, China’s nominal parliament, Ren Jianxin, president of the Supreme People’s Court, said that 72 people faced trial in Beijing for purely political crimes, while 715 were accused of physical acts aimed at blocking or protesting the army’s June 3-4, 1989, thrust into the city. Hundreds of citizens--perhaps as many as 2,000 or 3,000--died when troops fired at crowds.

Ren provided no figures for the total number of Beijing residents detained in the wide-ranging police sweeps that followed the army action. Nor did he provide any nationwide statistics on arrests and trials of those who participated in protests in at least 80 cities.

But Ren said that, of those detained in Beijing, “the great majority have been magnanimously released, one after another.”

These releases, he said, left 715 prisoners who allegedly engaged in “beating, smashing, looting, burning or killing” during “the counterrevolutionary rebellion,” plus 72 people who “incited and plotted to subvert the government in an attempt to overthrow the socialist system.”

“The actions of these serious offenders violated our country’s criminal law, and they must be punished,” he said.

Ren provided no details on results of the trials but implied that all defendants were found guilty.

Trials of the most prominent protest leaders have been conducted only in the past few months. The toughest sentences were meted out to journalist Wang Juntao, 32, and social scientist Chen Ziming, 38, each given 13 years for allegedly providing behind-the-scenes guidance to student leaders.

Some workers accused of violence against troops or military vehicles have been executed, but there have been no known executions of protest leaders.

During the recent wave of trials, it was announced that some defendants who had already been jailed for about 20 months were convicted but then immediately released for good behavior.

In a move that could be aimed at pressuring imprisoned dissidents such as Wang and Chen to recant their beliefs, Ren said that “convicts may still have their terms reduced, or be released on probation according to law, if they truly show repentance or render meritorious services while serving their prison terms.”

Performing “meritorious service” is often a reference to informing on others.

Ren also asserted that “all the legitimate procedural rights of the defendants were ensured, including the rights . . . to defend and appeal.”

But most defendants were not allowed to mount any sort of energetic defense, and with the exception of some family members, independent observers were barred from the trials. Some lawyers were warned not to accept defense cases. Those who did generally had only one week to prepare and there were severe restrictions on use of defense witnesses.

Wang and Chen managed to hire defense attorneys who made active efforts on their behalf. But friends of these two prisoners told the British news agency Reuters on Tuesday that these lawyers are now being punished.

The Ministry of Justice has confiscated the law licenses of Chen’s lawyers, Ji Suwan and Gao Xiaofeng, making it impossible for them to practice law, Reuters reported. Sun Yachen, who helped defend Wang, has been told he will be denied state housing, the news agency said.