UN rights chief says China must allow Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo’s wife Xia to move freely

Liu Xiaobo was never charged, but has been kept guarded and largely isolated in the apartment they shared in Beijing for more than seven years.

The UN human rights chief says he intends to keep pressuring China to allow the wife of the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo to move freely and leave the country if she wants to go elsewhere.

Liu Xia, wife of deceased Chinese Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo and other relatives attend his sea burial off the coast of Dalian, China in this photo released by Shenyang Municipal Information Office on July 15, 2017.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein told a group of reporters on Thursday that he intends to meet with Chinese officials when he returns to work in Geneva to try to ensure that Liu Xia has freedom of movement.

Liu died of liver cancer on July 13 while serving an 11- year sentence on charges of incitement to subvert government power. The current whereabouts of Liu Xia, an accomplished poet, are unknown.

She was never charged, but has been kept guarded and largely isolated in the apartment they shared in Beijing for more than seven years.