Liu Xiaobo

Dr Liu Xiaobo, prominent Chinese scholar, and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is serving an 11-year sentence for "inciting subversion of state power". The Beijing Municipal No 1 Intermediate People's Court sentenced him on 25 December 2009, after a two-hour trial on 23 December 2009, based on writing six articles distributed on websites hostedoutside mainland China between 2005 and 2007 and devising Charter 08, soliciting signatures to it and publishing itonline. His wife, Liu Xia, a poet and artist, is under illegal house arrest in Beijing. They are human rights defenders andprisoners of conscience.