China to extend detention of leading dissident

Nov 25, 2009, 9:12 GMT

   Beijing - Chinese police have applied for another two-month extension of their detention of leading dissident writer Liu Xiaobo despite international appeals for his release, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

   Lawyer Mo Shaoping said police in Beijing had applied for a third extension of Liu's detention pending investigation of subversion charges linked to his organization of Charter '08 for democratic reform in China.

   The US Congress passed a resolution last month to urge China to 'immediately release Liu Xiaobo and begin making strides toward true representative democracy.'

   But it was not known if US President Barack Obama raised Liu's case with Chinese leaders during talks in Beijing last week.

   'If Obama mentioned it, it will have some effect,' Mo told the German Press Agency dpa.

   'But whether the Chinese government will accept [an appeal from Obama], I cannot say,' he said.

   Mo said a Hong Kong rights centre's report that prosecutors had passed Liu's case back to the police for reinvestigation was untrue.

   Beijing-based activist Ding Zilin wrote an open letter appealing to Obama to press China to release Liu, Hong Kong-based newspaper Ming Pao reported.

   International rights groups also condemned the charging of Liu, 53, with subversion in June. He was detained last December, shortly before the release of Charter '08.

   New York-based Human Rights Watch said the government's charging of Liu signalled a 'hardening of the political climate in China.'

   Liu is officially represented by Shang Baojun and Ding Xikui from the Mo Shaoping Law Firm after authorities barred Mo from representing Liu directly because he was a fellow signatory of Charter '08.

   In Charter '08, 303 leading dissidents, activists and writers set out their ideals for transforming China into a liberal democracy and lamented a lack of 'freedom, equality and human rights' under the ruling Communist Party.