Terminal Nobel laureate set free for treatment
CHINA’S Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has been transferred on parole from prison to a hospital for terminal cancer treatment, his lawyer said yesterday, but concerned supporters called for his unconditional release.
Liu, who has three years of his 11-year sentence to serve, was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer on May 23 and granted medical parole days later, his lawyer Mo Shaoping said.
The democracy campaigner, 61, is being treated in the northeastern city of Shenyang, where he was imprisoned.
“He has no special plans. He is just receiving medical treatment for his illness,” Mo said.
The writer was sentenced in 2009 for so-called subversion after spearheading a bold petition for democratic reforms.
He was awarded the Nobel prize while in jail a year later and was represented by an empty chair at the ceremony in Oslo.
Supporters demanded that Liu be given the best medical care and criticised his treatment so far.
While the Nobel Committee said it was delighted to learn that Liu was finally freed, it “strongly regrets that it took serious illness before Chinese authorities were willing to release him from jail”.
“Chinese authorities carry a heavy responsibility if Liu Xiaobo, because of his imprisonment, has been denied necessary medical treatment,” it said.
The committee called for his unconditional release and said he should be offered the best possible treatment in China or abroad.
China researcher at Amnesty International, Patrick Poon, urged authorities to ensure that Liu had access to his family.
Poon also called for Liu and “all others imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights” to be released immediately and unconditionally.
“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,” Poon said.
Liu’s release was not reported by state media and his name remained blocked on social media website Weibo.
Asked about Liu’s parole, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: “I am not aware of the situation you are talking about.”
Liu is one of only three people who have won the Nobel award while jailed by their own government.
China strongly condemned the prize as foreign interference in its internal affairs.
Liu was arrested in 2008 after co-writing Charter 08, a bold petition that called for the protection of basic human rights and reform of China’s one-party Communist system.