Chinese dissident nominated for Peace Nobel
By DPA, IANSWednesday, February 3, 2010
PRAGUE/BRATISLAVA - Czech and Slovak lawmakers nominated Liu Xiaobo, a leading Chinese dissident sentenced to 11 years in prison, for the Nobel Peace Prize, organisers said.
Forty Czech lawmakers and 51 Slovak counterparts signed their respective nominations for the Norwegian Nobel Committee, according to organisers in both countries Wednesday.
Liu co-authored the Charter 08 pro-democratic manifesto that drew inspiration from Charter 77, a human rights petition signed by anti-Communist dissidents in former Czechoslovakia.
In December, a Chinese court convicted Liu of subversion, sentencing him to 11 years in prison for his writings and activities in the Charter 08 movement.
Liu’s Nobel Peace Prize nomination was also backed by former Czech president Vaclav Havel and other former Czechoslovakia’s Communist-era dissidents, Czech Senator and Charter 77 signatory Alexandr Vondra said on his website.
In Slovakia, whose centre-left ruling coalition has stayed away from criticising China over human rights violations, the nomination was backed solely by opposition lawmakers, said Milan Nic of the co-organising Pontis foundation.
Liu was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Princeton philosophy professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, who heads the US branch of the writers’ group PEN.
