BEIJING – One of China’s best-known dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, has been formally arrested on suspicion of inciting subversion, following his detention since late last year for promoting a petition calling for an end to one-party rule.
The move brings one of the most prominent critics of the ruling Communist Party a step closer to trial, and it will be a blow to supporters and human rights groups who had hoped he would be released after China passed the politically sensitive 20th anniversary of the 1989 pro-democracy Tiananmen protests.
State news agency Xinhua said yesterday that prosecutors approved Mr Liu’s arrest by Beijing police on Tuesday for “alleged agitation activities aimed at subversion of government and overthrowing of the socialist system”.
“Liu has been engaged in agitation activities, such as spreading of rumours and defaming of the government, aimed at subversion of the state and overthrowing the socialism system in recent years,” Xinhua quoted police as saying in a statement.
If indicted and convicted, the 53-year-old dissident could be sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in prison, according to Mo Shaoping, an attorney who has been barred from representing Mr Liu because the lawyer also signed the Charter 08 petition that the dissident helped to launch.
“It’s still in the investigation stage,” Mr Mo said.
Xinhua reported that Mr Liu “confessed to the charge in preliminary police investigation”.
But his family and friends have said he has been unfairly persecuted for peaceful expression.
“Xiaobo told a Beijing public security bureau officer to tell me not to worry too much . . . [but] I’m very worried. He has already been arrested. They will convict and sentence him,” his wife, Liu Xia, told Reuters by telephone.
Mr Liu has been allowed to meet his wife twice since he was taken into custody last December. He was visibly thinner, but appeared healthy and calm.
He has been a thorn in the government’s side since 1989, when he joined a hunger strike in support of student protesters days before the army crushed the pro-democracy movement centred on Tiananmen Square on June 4th of that year.
Late last year he was among 303 dissidents and rights activists who launched Charter 08, a petition calling for the dismantling of one-party rule and creation of multi-party democracy. About 9,000 people have signed the petition since. “Liu Xiaobo is expressing his right to free speech. This is a basic right . . . the Communist Party simply shouldn’t be detaining people like this,” Jiang Qisheng, a dissident who also signed Charter 08, said in an interview in February.