One of China's most prominent dissidents, Hu Jia, has been reunited with his family after being released from prison.
The civil rights activist who campaigned for the environment and AIDS patients, was imprisoned for three and a half years in 2008.
His sentence for sedition was due to end today.
The 37-year-old became one of China's best-known rights campaigners by highlighting government abuses, environmental degradation and the plight of China's AIDS sufferers until he was sentenced to prison.
Jailed for 'inciting subversion', a vague charge that critics say China uses to silence dissent, Hu returned to his home outside Beijing early today after completing his term, his wife Zeng Jinyan said on Twitter.
Slightly built and with a boyish smile, the bespectacled Hu struck fear into the hearts of China's rulers by disseminating information on a wide range of rights abuses in China.
His arrest in December 2007 came amid a broad crackdown on government critics to avert protests during the August 2008 Beijing Olympics.
An IT graduate from the Beijing School of Economics, Hu rose to prominence about a decade ago when he organised help for poor villagers who contracted AIDS by selling their blood in the 1990s, and has criticised government attempts to sweep China's AIDS problem under the rug.
His release comes as the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, continues his European tour.
