Xiaobo celebrates 55th birthday in prison
Jailed Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo marked his 55th birthday yesterday in a prison in northeast China, prompting renewed calls from rights groups for his immediate release.
Liu, a writer and one-time professor, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Christmas Day last year on subversion charges after co-authoring Charter 08, a bold petition calling for political reform in one-party Communist-ruled China.
He was named the peace prize winner in October, sparking fury in Beijing, which equated the Oslo-based Nobel committee's decision with encouraging crime. A ceremony in Liu's honour was held in the Norwegian capital on December 10.
The Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), an activist network based in Hong Kong, said it wanted to "take this opportunity to wish Liu Xiaobo a happy birthday and to once again call for his immediate and unconditional release".
The group recalled in a statement that Liu was spending his birthday at the remote Jinzhou prison in the northeastern province of Liaoning for the first time but had not been free to celebrate in the past two years.
In 2009, he was in a Beijing detention centre following his sentencing, and in 2008, he was under police surveillance outside the Chinese capital.
Rights groups have said that family visits to Liu at the prison have been suspended, despite the fact that a monthly visit is guaranteed under Chinese law.
Catherine Baber, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific deputy programme director, said both Liu and his wife, Liu Xia, who remains under house arrest in Beijing, should be freed.
"As the new year approaches, we would reiterate our call for his release and the release of his wife," Baber told AFP.
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