A prominent Chinese dissident who called for political reform has been arrested for allegedly trying to overthrow the country's socialist system, his wife said today, marking the highest-profile activist arrest since before last year's Olympics.
Liu Xiaobo had already been held at a secret location for more than six months without being charged or formally arrested. He was taken into police custody in December, a day before a manifesto he co-authored was released urging sweeping changes to China's rigid political system.
Police delivered a written notice to Liu's wife, Liu Xia, this morning informing her that her husband was formally arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of "inciting to subvert state power" and transferred to a Beijing city detention center. The next step would be indictment, according to Liu's lawyer.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in jail.
"I am so worried about him," Liu Xia said, fighting back tears. "I don't know how many more years he will be imprisoned now."
Liu Xia last saw her husband March 20 during a supervised visit where she noted that he looked thin and pale but otherwise seemed well. She said she doesn't know why her husband is considered such a threat to the ruling Communist Party.
"All he has is a pen and some paper," she said in a Beijing courtyard outside Liu's lawyer's office. "Here in China, he's not been able to express his opinions or have the freedom to publish. He has nothing, none of the basic rights or guarantees of a citizen. I don't understand how they could deprive a person to such an extent."
Liu's detention marks the most high-profile arrest of a Chinese dissident since human rights activist Hu Jia was detained last year ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Hu was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison for sedition last April.
China has always reacted sharply to any challenges to its one-party system, but it is also cracking down on any dissent ahead of a gala celebrating the communist regime's 60th anniversary on Oct. 1.
Liu, 53, is a former university professor who spent 20 months in jail for joining the 1989 student-led protests in Tiananmen Square.
In his writings, most published only on the Internet, Liu has called for civil rights and political reform, making him subject to routine harassment by authorities.
He was among more than 300 lawyers, writers, scholars and artists who signed "Charter 08" in December calling for a new constitution guaranteeing human rights, election of public officials, freedom of religion and expression, and an end to the Communist Party's hold over the military, courts and government.
It also calls for the abolition of the criminal code that allows people to be imprisoned for "incitement to subvert state power."
Police detained Liu a day ahead of the charter's release, possibly because they considered him a key organizer, in addition to his role in drafting and revising the document, his lawyer Mo Shaoping has said.
Mo said Wednesday that Liu Xia was advised by police to find a new lawyer for her husband because Mo was among the charter signatories.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported today that Liu had been engaged in "agitation activities, such as spreading of rumors and defaming of the government, aimed at subversion of the state and overthrowing the socialism system in recent years." It cited no specific examples and said that Liu allegedly confessed while in police custody.
Liu Xia and Mo both said they did not believe Liu had confessed to the charge. They said he more likely acknowledged authoring essays that the prosecution plans to use as evidence.
The singling out of Liu for prosecution seems to be an effort to warn others involved in the charter. Other signatories have been called in for talks with police but not arrested. A Peking University law professor, He Weifang, was reassigned to a post in the far western Xinjiang region after signing the document in an apparent rebuke.
Earlier this month, the leader of the US House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, called for Liu's "immediate and unconditional release." She also wrote a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao last month asking that Liu and other Chinese "prisoners of conscience" be released.
Liu had been held in an unknown location since December. The San Francisco-based Dui Hua Foundation said earlier this month he was being kept at a hotel on the outskirts of Beijing — a claim that could not be verified.
Chinese law limits such "house arrest" to six months and Mo demanded on June 8 that Liu be released immediately, saying that it was illegal to hold him any longer.
AP