A Chinese court has sentenced a leading dissident to 11 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power".
Liu Xiaobo, a 53-year-old academic, who was previously jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, had been charged for co-authoring a report appealing for political liberalisation.
The verdict was handed down by a Beijing court on Friday after a two-hour trial on Wednesday in which prosecutors accused Liu of "serious crimes".
Liu's wife, Liu Xia, had said on Wednesday that her husband had no plans to appeal.
Condemnation
The highly-sensitive case has been criticised by human rights groups and Western governments who had urged China to drop the charges and immediately release Liu.
Rights groups add that the trial was deliberately timed by Chinese authorities to coincide with the Christmas holiday period, in the hope that international media and foreign governments will overlook the case.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement condemning Liu's conviction on Friday, calling it a "travesty of justice", reflecting "yet again the government's willingness to use the law as a weapon to silence dissent".
"The severity of Liu's sentence puts the lie to the government's lofty rhetoric on commitment to rule-of-law and human rights," it said.
The case against Liu centres on his co-authoring of a petition titled Charter 08, which calls for the protection of human rights in China and reform of the country's one-party communist system.
According to China Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists, the petition had been widely circulated online, and was signed by more than 10,000 people, including other dissidents and intellectuals.
It specifically calls for the abolition of subversion in China's criminal code - the very crime with which Liu has been convicted.
Bao Tong, an aide to Zhao Ziyang, the late general secretary of the communist party purged for sympathising with the Tiananmen protests, also signed the petition.
Bao himself spent seven years in prison for sympathising with democracy advocates.
Liu is the only person to have been arrested for organising the Charter 08 appeal, but others who signed it have reported being harassed.
Source: Agencies
Liu Xiaobo, a 53-year-old academic, who was previously jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, had been charged for co-authoring a report appealing for political liberalisation.
The verdict was handed down by a Beijing court on Friday after a two-hour trial on Wednesday in which prosecutors accused Liu of "serious crimes".
Liu's wife, Liu Xia, had said on Wednesday that her husband had no plans to appeal.
Condemnation
The highly-sensitive case has been criticised by human rights groups and Western governments who had urged China to drop the charges and immediately release Liu.
Rights groups add that the trial was deliberately timed by Chinese authorities to coincide with the Christmas holiday period, in the hope that international media and foreign governments will overlook the case.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement condemning Liu's conviction on Friday, calling it a "travesty of justice", reflecting "yet again the government's willingness to use the law as a weapon to silence dissent".
"The severity of Liu's sentence puts the lie to the government's lofty rhetoric on commitment to rule-of-law and human rights," it said.
The case against Liu centres on his co-authoring of a petition titled Charter 08, which calls for the protection of human rights in China and reform of the country's one-party communist system.
According to China Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists, the petition had been widely circulated online, and was signed by more than 10,000 people, including other dissidents and intellectuals.
It specifically calls for the abolition of subversion in China's criminal code - the very crime with which Liu has been convicted.
Bao Tong, an aide to Zhao Ziyang, the late general secretary of the communist party purged for sympathising with the Tiananmen protests, also signed the petition.
Bao himself spent seven years in prison for sympathising with democracy advocates.
Liu is the only person to have been arrested for organising the Charter 08 appeal, but others who signed it have reported being harassed.
Source: Agencies
