Chinese rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng was released from prison on Thursday. He had been serving a 4-year sentence at Linyi city prison in Shandong Province.

Mr. Chen, who is blind and a self-taught lawyer, began defending the rights of farmers and the disabled in 1998. He later represented women who were forced to have late-term abortions and sterilizations under the Chinese regime's one-child policy.

Mr. Chen was arrested in 2006 after documenting late-term abortions in Linyi city, and charged with damaging public property and gathering people to block traffic. His supporters say the charges were fabricated.

A Hong-Kong based advocacy organization, Human Rights in China, says he was beaten and abused in custody.

His village and relatives are now under heavy surveillance. At least ten men in plain clothes blocked Associated Press journalists from entering his village. His relative Yin Dongjiang told the AP that authorities had installed surveillance cameras and cut off several relatives' phones.