‘Release Liu Xiaobo’, UN panel/ENG

2011. augisztus 2./Phayul.com/TibetPress

A United Nations human rights panel of legal experts has called for the immediate release of jailed Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo and his wife, saying their detention breaks international law.

In a opinion that was dated May, but released only Monday by a group called Freedom Now, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention urged Beijing to "take the necessary steps to remedy the situation, which include the immediate release and adequate reparation to Liu Xiaobo".

Chinese authorities sentenced Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison in 2009 on subversion charges related to his co-authoring of a “Charter 08″ manifesto calling for political reforms and greater rights in Communist-ruled China. Authorities placed his wife Liu Xia under house arrest last year, preventing her from travelling to Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize on Liu’s behalf.

The UN panel, an independent body made up of human rights experts from five countries said China was "in violation of its international human rights obligations", noting that Liu, 55, had just 14 minutes to defend himself at his two-hour trial.

"The government has not shown in this case a justification for the interference with Mr Liu Xiaobo's political free speech," the panel said while criticising the house arrest of Liu Xia, saying she "has the right to be brought promptly before a judge, and the right to legal counsel".

The U.S. government strongly backed the Working Group’s opinions.

“We join in with the U.N. Working Group, and once again call for the immediate release of Liu Xiaobo, as well as his wife, from detention, with full restoration of their rights, and urge China to uphold its international human rights obligations,” U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in Washington.

China has vowed not to give in to international pressure to release Liu Xiaobo and is yet to respond to the UN panel’s demand of Liu’s freedom.