Chinese dissident to be sentenced on Christmas Day

Prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo is due to be sentenced on Christmas Day after his trial on Monday on subversion charges, the Financial Times reported. Liu is the co-author of Charter '08, which calls for the establishment of multi-party democracy in China and has been signed by 10,000 supporters. Diplomats from 15 different countries including the US, the European Union, the Czech Republic and Canada were refused access to the trial, as was Liu's wife, who has not seen her husband since his arrest over a year ago. Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said, "The government itself seems to have no confidence that the trial could sustain any kind of international scrutiny and it has all the hallmarks of a decision taken at the very highest level." Liu's sentence could be anywhere from 3 to 15 years in prison.