Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, who was imprisoned in 2008, has been released on parole and transferred to a hospital after being diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer.
Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo was released from prison on medical parole after being diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer, the Chinese government confirmed in a statement released late Monday. Sixty-one-year-old Xiaobo was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer in May, and was hospitalized soon after.
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«The No. 1 Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University (in Shenyang) has formed a medical team comprised of eight nationally renowned oncologists and drawn up a treatment plan, » the statement said, CNN reported .
Xiaobo was the first Chinese citizen to win the Noble Peace Prize in 2010 for his long and peaceful campaign for human rights in the country. However, Xiabo could not receive the award in person as he was in prison at that time. He was represented by an empty chair at the ceremony.
Xiaobo first came into public prominence in 1989 during a suppression of protestors at Beijing’s Tiananmen Sqaure. He was arrested for two years and was released in 1991, according to a BBC report. During the agitation, Xiaobo was offered asylum in the Australian embassy. But he refused the offer and chose to stay in China to continue his fight for democracy. «The massacre in 1989 made a very deep impression on me, » he said in an interview he gave to the BBC in 2008.
