FILE - In this early June 4, 1989 file photo, a student protester puts barricades in the path of an already burning armored personnel carrier that rammed through student lines during an army attack on... (Associated Press) 
 
 BEIJING (AP) — China's last-known prisoner held in relation to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests will reportedly be released Saturday, but he'll face freedom a frail and mentally ill man, a rights group and a fellow former inmate said. 
 
 Miao Deshun's expected release follows an 11-month sentence reduction, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China. 
 
 The 51-year-old former factory worker is severely ill after spending more than half his life behind bars, said Dui Hua's executive director, John Kamm, in an email. 
 
 Tanks and troops converged in Beijing to quash pro-democracy protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989, killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of people. Authorities later jailed more than 1,600 people around the country for crimes linked to the demonstrations. Nearly three decades later, young Chinese know little of the events that marked the last major popular challenge to Communist rule in the mainland and remain a taboo. 
 
 Dui Hua said in May that Miao was due to be released Saturday. The date could not be independently verified. The Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Higher People's Court did not respond to faxed requests for comment. 
 
 Miao was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 1989 for throwing a basket into a burning tank, an act considered arson by the court. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1991, and further reduced over the years. 
 
 "No one other than prison officials or other prisoners in the ward for sick and disabled prisoners have seen him for many years," Kamm said. Miao suffers from hepatitis B and schizophrenia and is being held at the Yanqing Prison, a facility in a Beijing suburb that has a ward for elderly and ill prisoners, Dui Hua said. 
 
 During his time at the Beijing No. 1 Prison, Miao refused to accept the charges leveled against him or sign declarations of repentance, according to a former fellow inmate, Wu Wenjian. 
 
 Wu, then a factory worker, was also serving a sentence for involvement in the Tiananment protest. He spent four years in the same prison units as Miao. 
 
 "As time passed, Miao became very stubborn and refused to do hard labor, refused re-education, refused to write repentance letters," Wu said in an interview. "That's why he was moved to another unit reserved for the 'diehards.'" 
 
 For that, Miao often endured heavier punishments than other inmates, and prison guards frequently beat him and tortured him with electric batons, Wu said. 
 
 "It is already a miracle that he is alive. We all thought he would not make it out of this," Wu said. 
 
 According to Dui Hua, Miao has spent time in solitary confinement and has had no contact with the outside world for many years. He was transferred to Yanqing in 2003. 
 
 China has never fully disclosed what happened when the military crushed the 1989 weeklong protests, which authorities branded a "counterrevolutionary riot." The decades since have seen breakneck economic growth and the ruling Communist Party relinquish much of its day-to-day control over many aspects of society. The party retains a tight grip on dissent that has intensified under President Xi Jinping. 
 
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 Associated Press writer Gillian Wong contributed to this report. 

 A rights group said the country’s last-known prisoner held in relation to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests would be released on Saturday, but he would face freedom as a frail and mentally ill man. 
 
 Miao Deshun’s release follows an 11-month sentence reduction, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China. 
 
 Dui Hua executive director John Kamm said the 51-year-old former factory worker was severely ill after spending more than half his life behind bars. 
 
 Voices from Tiananmen: Eyewitnesses look back to the spring of 1989 
 
 Miao’s release date could not be independently verified. The authorities did not respond to requests for comment. 
 
 Troops converged in Beijing to quash pro-democracy protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989, killing hundreds of people. 
 
 Miao, then 24, received a suspended death sentence for arson after he was convicted of throwing a basket at a burning tank with other four workers during the protest. His sentence was commuted to life in jail in 1991 and reduced several times afterwards. 
 
 Only Beijing can heal people’s June 4 Tiananmen pain, says Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen 
 
 In May, Dui Hua said Miao’s term had been cut by 11 months for good behaviour. It said he would be released from Beijing’s Yanqing Prison on Saturday. 
 
 Miao had never admitted his wrongdoings in the protest, the foundation said at the time, quoting a former inmate. 
 
 Dui Hua also said Miao ­suffered from hepatitis B and schizophrenia. 
 
 Miao is widely seen as the last person to remain behind bars for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. 
 
 How Tiananmen spurred veteran lawyer to defend activists when no-one else dared 
 
 Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of state-run Global Times, previously wrote in a commentary about Miao that “the life of anyone who bet on the wrong side of history weighs less than a feather”. 
 
 Additional reporting by Eva Li 

 A student protester puts barricades in the path of an already burning armored personnel carrier in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. (Jeff Widener/AP) 
 
 On Saturday, China plans to release the final prisoner held for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, but after more than 27 years behind bars, he will rejoin the world a physically and mentally ill man, a rights group said. 
 
 Miao Deshun, a factory worker from Beijing, was not a leading figure in the pro-democracy demonstrations. Nevertheless, he was given a suspended death sentence for arson after he threw a basket at a burning tank during the June 4, 1989, crackdown on the protests. 
 
 His sentence was later commuted to life in prison and was subsequently reduced further, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China. 
 
 At 51, Miao has spent more than half his life behind bars and has had no contact with the outside world for many years: His family stopped visiting him more than 10 years ago, reportedly at his own request, Dui Hua said in a statement. 
 
 He suffers from hepatitis B and schizophrenia: Former prison inmates remember him as a very thin man who refused to admit wrongdoing and participate in prison labor, who was both tortured and given periods of solitary confinement as a result. 
 
 “No one other than prison officials or other prisoners in the ward for sick and disabled prisoners have seen him for many years,” Dui Hua’s executive director, John Kamm, told the Associated Press in an email, adding that Miao was severely ill. 
 
 Tens of thousands of troops and tanks converged on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to quash months of protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989. Several hundred people were killed — possibly several thousand — and more than 1,600 people around the country were subsequently jailed. 
 
 Today, young Chinese people know little of the events that marked the last major popular challenge to Communist Party rule on the mainland, but in Hong Kong, the anniversary is always marked with a candlelight vigil attended by tens of thousands. 
 
 Wu Wenjian, a dissident and painter who was in jail with Miao Deshun in Beijing from 1990 to 1994, said Miao’s “persistent” refusal to accept that he had committed a crime, participate in hard labor or sign repentance letters, was partly why he had remained in jail so long. 
 
 “He’s a loner,” Wu said. “At that time, whoever got a suspended death sentence would at least pretend to accept the sentence and the reform education, but he wouldn’t. He kept appealing and refused to be reformed.” 
 
 Wu said prison guards had frequently beaten Miao, including with electric batons, and even then he had not been in good health. “The main problem was with his mental health,” he said. “It’s quite understandable, given that he got a suspended death sentence and was under immense pressure.” 
 
 The Dui Hua Foundation said Miao was due to be released Saturday from Yanqing Prison, northeast of Beijing, after being given an 11-month sentence reduction this year, but the AP said the date could not be independently verified, as the Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Higher People’s Court were not responding to faxed requests for comment. 
 
 Hu Jia, a prominent human rights activist, said Miao’s life had been ruined, adding that he would need to re-adapt himself to a society very different from the one that existed when he was jailed. 
 
 “He might find himself leaving a small jail but entering a bigger prison,” he said. “He’s likely to find himself surrounded by state security police upon his release, something unimaginable before he went to jail. Release from jail does not necessarily mean more freedom.” 
 
 But Qi Zhiyong, who lost a leg in the crackdown near Tiananmen Square, said he was “excited” by the news of Miao’s release. “We are from the same generation — an oppressed generation,” he said. 
 
 Luna Lin contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more: 
 
 Witnesses to Tiananmen Square struggle with what to tell their children 
 
 25 years after Tiananmen, is China losing Hong Kong? 
 
 China tried to erase memories of Tiananmen. But it lives on in the work of dissident artists. 
 
 Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world
– The final known person still imprisoned over his role in China's 1989 Tiananmen Square protests is due to be released on Saturday, the AP reports. Miao Deshun—who reportedly suffers from schizophrenia and hepatitis B—refused to admit guilt or repent for participating in the pro-democracy protests. Miao, 51, has spent half his life in prison for throwing a basket at a flaming tank, which was deemed an act of arson. He was originally sentenced to death but had his term reduced several times for good behavior. Still, according to a former fellow prisoner, Miao's refusal to repent alienated him from the other prisoners and made him a frequent target of abuse from the guards. "It is already a miracle that he is alive," says that ex-prisoner, Wu Wenjian. "We all thought he would not make it out of this." Miao will be released into a world that bears little resemblance to the one he left. Speaking with the Washington Post, human rights activist Hu Jia said Miao is "likely to find himself surrounded by state security police upon his release, something unimaginable before he went to jail. Release from jail does not necessarily mean more freedom.” While the government might be letting Miao go free, Chinese state media isn't too sympathetic to the abuse he suffered. The English-language South China Morning Post reports that state-run paper Global Times recently ran an editorial saying "the life of anyone who bet on the wrong side of history weighs less than a feather."