FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information contact:
Sarah Hoffman, (212) 334-1660 ext. 105
 

New York City, June 1, 2010—PEN American Center has learned that prominent dissident and intellectual Liu Xiaobo has been moved from a detention center in Beijing to Jinzhou Prison in Liaoning.

Liu Xiaobo, a former president of the Independent Chinese PEN Center who is serving an 11-year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” for 224 characters in six of his essays and for Charter 08, was finally moved from Beijing Detention Center No. 1 on May 24, more than three months after his appeal was rejected. His wife, Liu Xia, was only informed of the move on May 30. Authorities are reportedly allowing her to visit Liu Xiaobo for the first time since his appeals hearing in February, but the trip takes several hours by train from their home in Beijing.

“We are deeply disappointed that the Chinese government has moved our colleague Liu Xiaobo so far from his family,” said Larry Siems, Director of the Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center. “It is important to remember that Liu Xiaobo committed no crime, so this move is certain to bring renewed condemnation from the international community. PEN continues to call for his immediate and unconditional release.”

PEN American Center is the largest of the 145 centers of International PEN, the world’s oldest human rights organization and the oldest international literary organization. The Freedom to Write Program of PEN American Center, which works to protect the freedom of the written word wherever it is imperiled, has been working to end China’s imprisonment, harassment, and surveillance of writers and journalists and curtail Internet censorship and other restrictions on the freedom to write in that country. For more information, please visit www.pen.org/china

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