WEB DESK
China’s most famous political prisoner, the Nobel laureate and democracy icon Liu Xiaobo, has died at the age of 61. Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.
Officials said, the activist was being treated for terminal liver cancer in a hospital in north-eastern China. He had been transferred from prison last month, where he was serving an 11-year term for subversion since 2009.
China was facing sustained international pressure to let cancer-stricken Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo seek treatment abroad, as the hospital updates suggest the democracy champion is close to death.
Liu was repeatedly jailed throughout his life, and had also been subject to heavy restrictions when he was free, while his wife, Liu Xia, was placed under house arrest.
The Chinese intellectual and activist is the first Nobel peace prize winner to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, the 1935 recipient, who died under surveillance after years confined to Nazi concentration camps