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Chinese dissident sentenced to 15 years
China’s most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed on Friday for 11 years for campaigning for political freedoms.
China’s most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed on Friday for 11 years for campaigning for political freedoms, with the stiff sentence on a subversion charge swiftly condemned by rights groups and Washington.
Liu, who turns 54 on Monday, helped organise the “Charter 08” petition which called for sweeping political reforms, and before that was prominent in the 1989 pro-democracy protests centred on Tiananmen Square that were crushed by armed troops.
He stood quietly in a Beijing courtroom as a judge found him guilty of “inciting subversion of state power” for his role in the petition and for online essays critical of the ruling Communist Party, defence lawyer Shang Baojun said.
Liu was not allowed to respond in court to the sentence.
Liu has been among the most combative critics of China’s one-Party rule. His case attracted an outcry from Western government and rights activists at home and abroad. The unusually harsh sentence drew a fresh outcry that is likely to grow.
Standing outside the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, a US diplomat said Washington was “deeply concerned”.
“We continue to call on the government of China to release him immediately and to respect the rights of all Chinese citizens to peacefully express their political views.”
