China: Dissident awaits 'subversion' verdict

The brother-in-law of a Chinese dissident who has called for sweeping political reforms and an end to Communist Party dominance said a verdict would be handed down on Friday.

Liu Hui said the trial for Liu Xiaobo, charged with inciting to subvert state power, lasted for about two hours today and that the prosecutors accused him of “serious” crimes.

Liu Hui was allowed into the No 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing, but authorities barred diplomats from the US and other countries and the defendant’s wife.

The vaguely-worded charge of inciting to subvert state power is routinely used to jail dissidents and carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.

Liu Hui said the prosecution did not say what sort of jail term it wanted if Liu Xiaobo was found guilty.

The trial two days before Christmas is the latest example of authorities taking action against activists around major holidays, rights groups said, perhaps with the hope that it would go unnoticed.

Liu Xiaobo was detained a year ago, just before the release of an unusually direct appeal for political liberalisation he co-authored called Charter 08. More than 300 people, including some of China’s top intellectuals, signed before it was released.

Abolishing the “inciting to subvert state power” law is among the reforms advocated in Charter 08.

“We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes,” the petition says.

The US and European Union have urged Beijing to free Mr Liu, but China has rejected their requests.

“We were told all the passes were given out. We understand no-one can get in,” said Gregory May, a political officer with the US embassy.

“We call on the government of China to release him immediately. We urge that any judicial proceedings be conducted in a fair and transparent manner.”

Nicholas Weeks, the first secretary of the Swedish Embassy, said diplomats from at least 15 countries were outside the court. Sweden holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

Lawyer Shang Baojun said earlier Mr Liu would plead not guilty.

Mr Shang was swarmed by media and police when he arrived. “Who are you?” he yelled at one policeman, who told the lawyer he was blocking traffic.

He shook hands with more than a dozen diplomats before entering the court.

Mr Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, said she had not seen or spoken to her husband since March, when police arranged a short, supervised meeting in a Beijing hotel room.

Mrs Liu said she had been told she could not attend her husband’s trial.

Mr Liu is the only person to have been arrested for organising the Charter 08 appeal, but others who signed it have reported being harassed.

Human Rights Watch, the China-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders and others have said some of Mr Liu’s supporters in China, including prominent bloggers, had been warned not to try to attend the trial or write about it online.

“The only purpose of this trial is to dress up naked political repression in the trappings of legal proceedings,” Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said.

The New York-based Human Rights in China said yesterday that one of the original signers of Charter 08, Zhang Boshu, was sacked on Monday from China’s top think-tank, the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In the statement, Mr Zhang said he had been dismissed because of his articles promoting constitutional reform.