Nobel laureate Liu Xia's widow willing to 'die at home' in protest

Liu Xia with a portrait of her husband Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese Nobel laureate. Pic/AFP

The widow of late Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo said that after eight years of house arrest she is ready to "die at home" in protest of her continuing detention by Chinese authorities, a report has said.

The poet Liu Xia, 56, has been under close police watch, despite facing no charges, since her husband was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, a recognition that deeply angered the Communist regime. "It is easier to die than live. Using death to defy could not be any simpler for me," Liu recently told a friend in Germany, according to the US-based website China Change.

Liao Yiwu, an exiled Chinese writer living in Berlin, said in a letter published by the human rights website that he was shocked to hear Liu's distress and urged her to "wait".

Liu Xiaobo was a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and was detained in 2008 after co-writing Charter 08, a petition calling for democratic reforms. He died in Chinese custody last July after authorities rejected his request to receive treatment abroad.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever