It sounds like another story of a citizen being victimized for exposing misbehavior of officials and saved by the power of the Internet, as a controversial post freed a man who was confined to a mental hospital for nearly 14 years for alleged muckraking.

The Internet post, entitled "Help! My father was confined in mental hospital for 14 years", by Guo Hanyun, appeared Saturday on a tianyaclub.com bulletin board, China's hottest online community.

Guo said her father, Guo Yuanrong, was sent to the DMC Maojian Hospital in Shiyan city of central China's Hubei Province 14 years ago after he exposed corruption by his leader in the Construction Bureau of Zhuxi County in the province.

Guo's family tried many times to bring him home from the mental hospital but failed without approval from the county's public security bureau, according to the post.

The internet posting immediately caught the attention of hundreds of thousands of netizens, apparently because the poster, Guo Hanyun, said she would like to marry or "serve as a slave" to whoever can end her father's ordeal.

Within just a few days, the post received more than 350,000 hits and about 6,200 replies.

The media quickly followed in to report on the case, too.

Three days after the post was put online, Guo Yuanrong, 50, was discharged from the hospital and brought home by his brother.

DIFFERENT VERSION

It initially seemed like a triumph of the righteous muckraker and netizens who cared about the man. However, the government has had its own say.

The Public Security Bureau of Zhuxi County insisted that Guo had mental diseases and the decision to confine him in the mental hospital was justified.

At the bureau's office, Xinhua reporters were shown four stacks of documents about Guo's case.