In connection with the conviction and eleven-year prison term handed down by a Chinese court on Chinese intellectual and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle today (25 December) issued the following statement:

“I am gravely concerned by the conviction of the prominent Chinese civil rights activist Liu Xiaobo.

China is a signatory of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees fundamental human rights, including freedom of speech.

I invite the Chinese Government to continue pursuing the path of liberalization and modernization and to ensure that human rights are respected.”

Liu Xiaobo was arrested on 8 December last year and charged with being a co-author of the so-called Charter 08. The German Government has – like the EU – protested against his detention on repeated occasions. On Friday morning (25 December) Beijing’s First Intermediate People’s Court sentenced the Chinese civil rights activist to an eleven-year prison term for attempted subversion of state authority.