중국 법원이 대표적인 인권활동가 류 샤오보(Liu Xiaobo)가 제기한 항소를 기각하고 원심대로 징역 11년형을 확정했다.
류 변호사는 중국에서 저명한 학자이자 중국의 정치-사법 개혁 등을 요구하는 ’08헌장’ 서명운동을 주도한 대표적인 반정부인사다.
그는 ’08헌장’에 서명한 후 체포됐으며, 지난해 12월 25일 “국가 권력에 대한 전복을 선동한 혐의”로 징역 11년을 선고 받고 이에 불복해 항소했다.
국제앰네스티는 중국 정부에 류 사오보를 즉각 석방할 것을 요구했다. 국제앰네스티 아시아-태평양국(局) 로젠 라이프(Roseann Rife)부국장은 “법원이 류 샤오보에 대한 유죄 판결을 유지함으로써 잘못된 것을 바로잡을 수 있는 기회를 잃었다”라고 지적하며, “이 가혹한 판결은 중국에는 표현의 자유나 독립된 사법부가 여전히 없다는 사실을 중국 국민들과 전 세계에 분명하게 상기시키는 것이다”라고 말했다.
Chinese authorities urged to free activist Liu Xiaobo
The Chinese authorities must immediately release a human rights activist whose appeal against an 11 year prison sentence was rejected by a Beijing court, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
The Beijing Municipal Higher People’s Court on Thursday upheld Liu Xiaobo’s prison sentence for “inciting subversion of state power”. Liu Xiaobo, a well-known scholar and advocate of political and legal reform in China, was given an 11 year prison sentence on 25 December 2009 simply for exercising his right to freedom of expression.
“By upholding the verdict the court missed an opportunity to right the wrong. His harsh sentence is a stark reminder to the Chinese people and the world that there is still no freedom of expression or independent judiciary in China,” said Roseann Rife, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific programme.
Several Beijing activists were placed under surveillance beginning Wednesday night or early Thursday morning and prevented from attending the sentencing. Liu Xiaobo’s wife was allowed into the court room.
“The case is the third this week which has seen the authorities crack down on activists. The message is clear, if you criticize the system outside the parameters set by the authorities or independently try to organize civil society, you will be stopped.” said Roseann Rife.
On Monday, Huang Qi’s appeal against a three year prison sentence was dismissed, while Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday.
Both are human rights activists who have called for accountability for the deaths of children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the military crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Beijing.
Liu Xiaobo co-authored Charter 08, a proposal for political and legal reform in China. The police took Liu Xiaobo from his home in Beijing on 8 December 2008, two days before the planned launch of Charter 08. Numerous signatories of the charter have been questioned and harassed by Chinese authorities since its launch but no one but Liu Xiaobo has been charged or tried.
Nobel Peace Price Laureates Vaclav Havel and the Dalai Lama, alongside many others, have supported the nomination of Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Price. Vaclav Havel co-wrote Charter 77, a document calling for respect of human rights in 1977 in Czechoslovakia on which the Charter 08 was modelled.
Several other signatories of Charter 08 have asked to share the responsibility with Liu Xiaobo and a group of senior Communist Party members including Hu Jiwei and Sha Yexin issued a letter to President Hu Jiantao questioning the legal grounds for Liu Xiaobo’s sentence.
