The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention criticised Liu's pre-trial detention, saying he was held 'incommunicado' and denied access to a lawyer before being sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2009 on charges of subversion.
The writer, now 55, had co-authored Charter 08, a manifesto that quickly spread on the Internet calling for political reform and greater rights in Communist-ruled China.
The UN panel, an independent body made up of human rights experts from five countries, urged Beijing to 'take the necessary steps to remedy the situation, which include the immediate release and adequate reparation to Mr Liu Xiaobo'.
'The government has not shown in this case a justification for the interference with Mr Liu Xiaobo's political free speech,' it said in a written opinion dated May 5 and released on Monday by legal rights group Freedom Now.http://www.straitstimes.c...ory/STIStory_697171.html


