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Leading dissident Liu Xiaobo on trial in China
Agence France Presse - December 24, 2009
Beijing – China's most prominent dissident went on trial yesterday on charges of subversion in one of the country's most sensitive cases in years.
Liu Xiaobo, 53, who was previously jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, has been charged with "inciting subversion of state power" after co-authoring a bold call for political reform.
Western diplomats were denied access to the hearing in a Beijing court after Washington and Brussels last week called for Mr Liu's release, and key dissidents said they were warned not to try to attend the proceedings.
If convicted, Mr Liu – who has already been detained for a year – faces a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Dozens of police officers ringed the courthouse and sealed off the footpaths as a handful of diplomats and Liu supporters gathered outside.
The dissident's wife, Liu Xia, said by telephone that her brother, who attended the proceedings, confirmed the trial had ended without a verdict. Liu Xia was prevented from attending the hearing by police stationed outside her home. Mr Liu, a university professor before his involvement in the Tiananmen demonstrations, co-authored Charter 08, which calls for human rights protection and the reform of China's one-party communist system.
The petition, which has been widely circulated online, has been signed by more than 10,000 people, including other key dissidents and intellectuals, according to China Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists.
It calls for the abolition of subversion in China's criminal code – the very crime with which Mr Liu has been charged. The charge is routinely brought against those who voice opposition to the ruling Communist Party.
"I have the right to express my opinions about society and politics," prominent human rights lawyer Teng Biao, a Charter 08 signatory, told reporters at the courthouse.
"If Liu Xiaobo is sentenced, then we should also assume the same crime, and we should bear the same legal responsibility."
The authorities have had plenty of time to consider the case and to decide the length of Mr Liu's term since he was detained without charge on December 8 last year, within hours of publishing Charter 08.
In a sign of the sensitivity of the trial, the authorities have visited or called many of the 300 original signatories to the document to warn them not to voice online support for Mr Liu or try to attend his trial.
Diplomats from more than a dozen countries, including the US, Britain, Canada, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand, stood outside the courthouse, awaiting news.
The US and the EU appealed for Mr Liu's unconditional release and an end to the harassment and detention of political dissidents – calls that Beijing dismissed as "unacceptable".
US embassy official Gregory May reiterated Washington's stance at the courthouse.
"We 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," he said, noting the case had been raised "at high levels".
Mr Liu's trial comes amid fears that officials are attempting to rush the case through the court during the Western holiday season in a bid to attract less global attention. Rights groups accuse Beijing of abusing legal charges to silence critics.
"The only purpose of this trial is to dress up naked political repression in the trappings of legal proceedings," said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Liu's crimes are non-existent, yet his fate has been pre-determined. This is a travesty of justice."
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