China accuses pro-democracy activist Liu Xiabo of inciting a rebellion
— Daily Telegraph: “Liu Xiaobo, one of China’s most famous pro-democracy advocates, has been charged with trying to subvert Communist Party rule.”
— “It added that Mr Liu had been ‘spreading rumours and defaming the government’ and that he had ‘confessed to the charge in preliminary police investigation'”
— “After being held for seven months in a secret jail, Mr Liu, 53, was formally arrested for ‘alleged agitation activities aimed at subversion of government and overthrowing of the socialist system’, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.”
— “The crime of inciting a subversion can carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, according to Mr Liu’s lawyer, Mo Shaoping.”
— “Mr Liu has been held in a secret prison somewhere in Beijing since last December. In one of two meetings with his wife since the beginning of the year, he told her he was being held in a small room with no windows.”
— “He was arrested one day before releasing Charter 08, a petition calling for the end of one-party rule in China and the establishment of a multi-party democracy.”
— “Charter 08 was initially signed by 300 lawyers, intellectuals and dissidents. It won widespread praise overseas, and has unsettled the Communist Party at home. As many as 8,000 people have come forward to sign it, despite the risks of publicly supporting such a document.”
— “Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, is under constant surveillance and the police have built a guardhouse outside her Beijing apartment.”