BEIJING (AFP)--Prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who signed a charter calling for democratic reforms, is being held in a form of detention that typically precedes a trial, human rights activists said Friday.
Liu, a leading dissident writer, was taken away by police on Dec. 8, and his location has remained unknown as prominent international authors and academics have called for his release.
He is now in a location near Beijing, where he is being kept under a form of pretrial detention, fellow activist Jiang Qisheng said.
"He is being held somewhere in the suburbs of Beijing, but I don't know exactly where," Jiang said.
Calls to Liu's wife, Liu Xia, went unanswered.
Liu was a leading figure in the democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989, when he was a university literature professor. The movement was crushed by the People's Liberation Army.
Hundreds, if not thousands, were believed killed.
Liu's detention followed his signing of Charter 08, which called for democracy, freedoms of assembly and expression and other reforms.
Its issuance came just ahead of the 60th anniversary of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Liu Xia and Jiang, another charter signatory, have since repeatedly demanded police explain Liu's detention, without success.
Liu's case sparked a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao by activist group Human Rights Watch that expressed concern at Liu's "arbitrary detention."
It was signed by a list of literary luminaries such as the U.K.'s Salman Rushdie and Italy's Umberto Eco.
"The presumption is that Mr. Liu has been arrested solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed under China's constitution and international law," the letter to Hu said.
The European Union and U.S. have expressed concern over Liu's detention, but China has dismissed that as interference in its domestic affairs.
Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a network of domestic and overseas rights activists, also said in a statement Friday that Liu was being held in pretrial detention.
It added that Liu was allowed to meet with his wife Thursday, and that he was in good spirits.
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Publié le 02 janvier 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones