China releases Nobel laureate with terminal cancer

China’s jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has been granted medical parole after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer last month, his lawyer said on Monday, worrying supporters who pleaded for his unconditional release.

Liu, who has about three years of his 11-year sentence to serve, was diagnosed on May 23 and was released days later, his lawyer Mo Shaoping told AFP. The 61-year-old democracy campaigner was being treated at a hospital in the north-eastern city of Shenyang. “He has no special plans. He is just receiving medical treatment for his illness,” Mo said.

The writer was sentenced in 2009 for “subversion” after spearheading a bold petition for democratic reforms. He was awarded the Nobel prize a year later and was represented by an empty chair at the ceremony in Oslo. Supporters voiced concerns about his health and criticised the way he has been treated by Chinese authorities.

“Adding injury to insult, Liu Xiaobo has been diagnosed with a grave illness in prison, where he should never have been put in the first place,” Patrick Poon, China researcher at global rights group Amnesty International, told AFP.

Poon called on Chinese authorities to ensure Liu “receives adequate medical care, effective access to his family and that he and all others imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights are immediately and unconditionally released”.

Su Yutong, a Chinese journalist and activist in exile in Germany since 2010, said she was “very shocked and saddened” that her friend had fallen ill in prison, and urged authorities to let him travel overseas for treatment.

“We still do not know whether in prison he was subjected to severe torture and inhumane treatment,” Su said. AFP