Hong Kong activists celebrate after Liu leaves for Germany

HONG KONG: Hong Kong prodemocracy campaigners yesterday welcomed news that the widow of Chinese Nobel dissident Liu Xiaobo had left China for Germany after years under effective house arrest.

Liu Xia, 57, had faced no charges but endured heavy restrictions on her movements since 2010 when her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize, infuriating Beijing.

Friends said the poet had taken a Finnair flight to Berlin via Helsinki, just days before the first anniversary of her husband’s death from liver cancer which sparked condemnation around the world.

Activists in Hong Kong gave a minute’s applause for Liu Xia, followed by a minute’s silence at a memorial for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest veteran Liu Xiaobo, which was adorned with pictures of the couple.

“I wish Ms. Liu Xia well, and that she will be safe from now on,” wrote a commenter on Facebook. — AFP