Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo begins second year of detention without charge

Published on December 8, 2009 by brooks | This story has been viewed 304 views

China’s most prominent dissident begins his second year in detention today, still in a legal limbo with no formal charges against him after 365 days behind bars.

The case of Liu Xiaobo highlights a tougher stance by the Communist Party over the past 12 months towards those who dare to challenge its authority over all aspects of daily life.

Mr Liu, a writer and former university professor, was taken from his home late at night on December 8 last year. His detention coincided with the publication of Charter 08, an online petition that he co-authored, calling for the protection of human rights and reform of the one-party system.

He now shares a cell with about five other suspects at Beijing’s No 1 Detention Centre. He was taken there from solitary confinement after his formal arrest on June 23 for “inciting subversion of state power”. The charge can carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.

His wife, Liu Xia, told The Times that she took him clothing and money each month but had not been allowed to see her husband.

“The lawyers tell me he is in good spirits. I worry. But I think he is mentally prepared that they may sentence him to ten years,” Mrs Liu said.

She added that once he had been tried and imprisoned, she would at least be allowed to visit him. She has little hope of his release.

Mr Liu gained fame as one of four intellectuals who joined students in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and who negotiated with the army for their safe passage out on June 4.

His lawyers have been allowed to visit the veteran activist five times since his formal arrest. They voiced concern at the absence of charges and questioned why the authorities had extended his detention three times without beginning court proceedings.Shang Baojun, one of his two lawyers, said that Mr Liu must be returned to house arrest or jailed by January 23 — the maximum period for which he can be detained without trial under Chinese law.

“The case is not complicated. It’s about his writings and the Charter 08, which are all public, so we can’t understand why they keep extending his detention,” he said.

Mr Liu has been allowed no new books since September, when regulations came into force banning reading matter for those in detention.

Mrs Liu said: “I can give him 1,000 yuan (£90) a month, but he can’t afford to buy meat and mainly eats potatoes or cabbage.”

Mr Liu has told his lawyers, however, that the conditions of his detention have improved since his time in jail in 1996. His case is not isolated. There is reported to have been an increase in cases not just against dissidents, but also death sentences and executions for those accused of gang crimes or ethnic violence in recent weeks.

Sophie Richardson, the Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, which is based in New York, said: “In a couple of different ways the trend is distinctively negative. Thirty years into opening up and reform, and we are not significantly further along with human rights protections.

“The changes are not commensurate with other realms. That is not an accident. That is a choice.”

She cited the closure in August of the Beijing-based Open Constitution Initiative and the temporary detention of its founder, a lawyer who prided himself on working within the mainstream to strengthen the legal system.

The sudden rush of death sentences and executions of gangsters, rounded up in a crackdown on triads, and of those found guilty of murder in riots in the mainly Muslim city of Urumqi, in China’s far west, was another example of a harder line, Ms Richardson said.

“We can only surmise that the supreme court has been extremely busy recently.” All capital sentences must be reviewed by the court but the number remains a state secret.

Possibly Related Posts:


Filed under: China

You must be logged in to post a comment.