FILE - Liu Xia, wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, cries in a car outside Huairou Detention Center where her brother Liu Hui has been jailed in Huairou district, on the outskirts of Beijing, China.
The wife of jailed Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo is calling on China to relax the conditions of her government-imposed isolation.
Liu Xia has been held without charge in her Beijing home since her husband won the Nobel peace prize in 2010. She is only occasionally allowed to see her husband, who is serving an 11-year prison term for "subversion."
A Chinese activist, Zeng Jinyan, on Tuesday relayed three requests from Liu Xia to Chinese authorities. She asked to be able to consult a doctor freely, to read letters from her husband, and to make a living.
Liu＇s health is said to be deteriorating because of her husband＇s imprisonment and her extended house arrest. However, Zeng reports that Liu has refused to seek medical treatment, fearing authorities will use this as an excuse to "throw her into a psychiatric hospital."
Zeng said Liu, a poet and artist, would also like to be allowed to earn an income and support her family. He says the family is suffering "economic hardship" because of legal expenses.
Liu has been financially dependent on her brother, Liu Hui. But that source of income was cut off after he was also jailed on fraud charges the family claims were politically motivated.
Regarding Liu＇s correspondence with her husband, Zeng said it has been "extremely hard" for them to read the letters they write to each other. Liu Xia has only occasionally been allowed to visit her husband in jail.
Liu Xiaobo was awarded the peace prize for his activism in support of peaceful democratic change in China, which is under a one-party communist political system. He was sentenced in 2009 to 11 years in prison.
His case has attracted international headlines and prompted outrage from governments and human rights groups around the world.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the PEN American Center wrote a letter urging Vice President Joe Biden to bring up Liu Xiaobo＇s case during his meetings with Chinese officials this week.
The letter said guards remain outside Liu Xia＇s apartment at all times, and those who try to meet with her have been detained. She has also been cut off from communicating with the outside world via telephone, Internet and mail.
The rights groups＇ statement said Biden should "continue to raise Liu Xiaobo＇s case at every available opportunity and demand that authorities end all forms of repression and intimidation of his family."
China＇s Communist Party-controlled courts have convicted a rising number of activists and dissidents in recent years on subversion or incitement of subversion charges.
|
|
