Liu Xia finally 'leaves China'

Liu Xia, the widow of Chinese Nobel dissident Liu Xiaobo who had been under de facto house arrest in China, left the country yesterday en route to Germany, according to friends.

Despite facing no charges, the 57-year-old poet had endured heavy restrictions on her movements since 2010 when her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize -- an award that infuriated Beijing.

Friends said she was on board a Finnair flight to Helsinki on her way to Berlin, a move that came just days before the first anniversary of her husband's death from liver cancer.

Berlin-based dissident Liao Yiwu, who is expected to welcome her in the German capital later yesterday, voiced his joy on Twitter, saying: "I am so, so, so happy! Finally, finally, Xia is coming today!!"

Liu had become a cause célèbre and was seen as a test case for China's attitude to human rights, with activists and foreign powers urging Beijing to allow her to leave the country.

Her husband Liu Xiaobo, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, died last year while serving an 11-year jail sentence for "subversion", the first Nobel laureate to die in custody since the Nazi Germany era.

Speaking to AFP before her departure, close friend Ye Du said Liu was suffering from "very severe" depression, adding she would "sometimes faint" and was taking medicine to sleep.

Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said that Liu's travel to Germany for medical treatment was "of her own free will."

Chinese authorities had consistently maintained Liu was free but imposed severe restrictions on her movement and she was under constant surveillance.

Liu was believed to be reluctant to leave China over her family's safety.