A student leader of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square protests who was a long-time US resident was put on trial Thursday for fraud, his lawyer said, just a day after a visit by US President Barack Obama.

Zhou Yongjun, 42, was tried by a court in the southwestern province of Sichuan, lawyer Chen Zerui told AFP, on charges that Amnesty International has denounced as "politically motivated."

Speaking by phone from Sichuan, Chen said the fraud charges had no foundation. He said it was not known when a verdict against Zhou would be announced by the court in the city of Suining, Zhou's hometown.

Zhou was a leader of the Beijing Students' Autonomous Union, one of the most visible groups in the protests at Tiananmen Square, which ended on June 4, 1989 in an army crackdown that killed hundreds, possibly thousands.

Human rights groups said he was seized by authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen on September 30 last year as he tried to enter China to visit his family after living in the United States since 1992.

"According to the accusations made by the prosecution… he could be sentenced to ten years or more in prison," Chen said.

The fraud allegations centre around three letters allegedly sent to a bank in Hong Kong from Canada asking for a large transfer of money, according to Chen.

He argued that China did not have jurisdiction in such a case, and said he had raised the issue of Zhou's illegal detention for over a year.

An official at the court, who refused to be named, confirmed to AFP that the trial took place Thursday, but said he had no further details.

The trial comes just one day after Obama finished his maiden visit to China, where he raised the issue of human rights, saying the United States believed in fundamental rights for all people, including ethnic and religious minorities.

Zhou has a "green card" denoting permanent residence status in the United States.

In May, a State Department spokesman in Washington said the US government was "disturbed" by the initial reports that Zhou would face charges and had raised the issue with Beijing.

Relatives of Zhou reached by AFP referred questions about the case to Zhou's legal counsel.

His brother Zhou Lin told AFP in May he did not know how his brother could have committed fraud in China, given that he had been out of the country for so long.

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