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China jails dissident Liu Xiaobo for 11 years
Chris Buckley and Lucy Hornby
BEIJING
Fri Dec 25, 2009 2:01am EST
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BEIJING (Reuters) - China's most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed on Friday for 11 years for campaigning for political freedoms, with the stiff sentence on subversion condemned by rights groups and Washington.
World | China
Liu, who turns 54 on Monday, helped organize the "Charter 08" petition which called for sweeping political reforms, and before that was prominent in the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered on Tiananmen Square that were crushed by armed troops.
He stood in a Beijing courtroom facing a judge who declared he was guilty of "inciting subversion of state power" for his involvement in the petition and for essays critical of the ruling Communist Party published online, defense lawyer Shang Baojun said.
Liu was not allowed to respond in court to the sentence.
"I felt calm when the judge read out the sentence, because all the signs were they wanted to hand out a long sentence," said Liu's wife, Liu Xia, who was allowed in to hear the verdict. She was excluded from the trial on Wednesday.
"Later we were allowed 10 minutes together, and he told me he would appeal, even if the chances of success are low," she added.
China's Party-controlled courts rarely find in favor of defendants, especially in politically sensitive cases.
Liu has been among the most prominent and combative critics of China's one-Party rule. His case has attracted an outcry from human rights activists at home and abroad, as well as Western governments. The long sentence drew a fresh outcry.
China "sees Liu Xiaobo as a representative figure, and think they can scare the others into silence with such a harsh sentence," said dissident Christian activist Yu Jie.
President "Hu Jintao believes that with the West weakened and human rights taking a back seat, he can ignore pressure over attacks on freedom of expression."
Standing outside the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, a U.S. 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 in favor of universally recognized fundamental freedoms," said the diplomat, Gregory May, reading from a prepared statement.
China, emboldened by its strong economy and the woes of Western powers, appears to have little patience with pressure over its strict controls on citizens' political activities.
"The court had strictly followed the legal procedures in this case and fully protected Liu's litigation rights," read a court statement, carried by state news agency Xinhua in English.
China had criticized Western diplomats, who sought to attend the trial. The envoys were also excluded from the verdict hearing, as were reporters who gathered outside.
Amnesty International and other rights groups decried the verdict. Phelim Kine, Asia researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said it was a "travesty of justice."
China stifled Charter 08, pressuring many signatories. Now Liu's sentence may galvanize fresh domestic activism. One supporter, Yang Licai, evaded dozens of police guarding the courthouse and condemned the verdict as "reprehensible."
The verdict was not reported by local Chinese-language media, but word was swiftly spread by Liu's supporters on Twitter, which is blocked in China but can be accessed by by-passing Internet controls. Many showed yellow ribbons in solidarity.
"If Liu can be sentenced for his writings, then many more of us can also be sentenced," said Yu, the dissident. "But I think his case will embolden, not scare, others." Liu has been a thorn in the government's side since joining a hunger strike in support of Tiananmen student protesters. He had been jailed for 20 months after 1989, spent three years at a labor camp in the 1990s and months under virtual house arrest.
Liu also helped found the Independent Chinese PEN group, which has campaigned against censorship and political controls.
(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard, Lucy Hornby and Ben Lim; Editing by David Fox)
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