Beijing ? A Chinese activist was struck by an assailant and left paralyzed after meeting with police to discuss an interview he gave on German television, a human rights group and a German broadcaster said Tuesday.

The attack on Fu Xiancai, a critic of the government’s treatment of people displaced by the Three Gorges dam project, raises questions about police complicity and highlights the risks Chinese rights campaigners face.

In an interview aired by German TV network ARD on May 19, Fu said he had been threatened and beaten for complaining to the government about not getting compensation he was promised for relocating, according to a letter from a German broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk.

Three weeks later, on June 8, he was called in by police in Zigui county to discuss the interview. While walking home after meeting with police, Fu was struck from behind, and the blow broke his neck, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down, New York-based Human Rights in China said in statement.