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Beijing (dpa) – After eight years of house arrest, China left the widow of the Chinese Nobel Peace Prize Liu Xiaobo . The suffering of depression Liu Xia wants to get medical treatment in Germany.
The 57-year-old artist flew to Helsinki with a Finnair Finnair company, where she arrived smiling in the afternoons, as shown by the photos of the artist. arrival. His goal was Berlin friends and his brother reported. The release of the artist has been internationally welcomed as a "long awaited humanitarian gesture".
Brother Liu Hui announced that his sister "begins a new life" through the social network WeChat. "Thanks to all who took care of them and helped them over the years," Liu Hui wrote shortly after his departure. "We wish you peace and a happy life in the future."
The departure of the poet and photographer took place only three days before the first anniversary of the death of Liu Xiaobo, who died in detention of a liver cancer on July 13, 2017, at the age 61 years old. In 2010, the civil rights activist was the first Chinese to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China".
"Liu Xia voluntarily went to Germany for medical treatment," Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying told China . The departure has nothing to do with the visit of Prime Minister Li Keqiang to the German-Chinese intergovernmental consultations of the day before in Berlin.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had repeatedly campaigned for the release and departure of Liu Xia. "The decision to release was decisive for Chancellor Merkel's last visit in May," said a friend who had close contact with Liu Xia, the German news agency. The artist was already in the middle of last week had been promised that she could leave, as described by the friend.
"For more than four years, the Embassy of Germany in Beijing has been the only one to have been in constant contact with her by phone, even though she had not been available for a quarter of a year. Because she was taken somewhere. " "I know that the German ambassador had talked to him regularly, especially since the death of Liu Xiaobo." In their efforts, the Germans have always cooperated very closely with the Americans.
"The Chinese were heavily criticized, so they wanted to do it before the first anniversary of Liu Xiaobo's death on July 13," said the friend. "In the end, the Chinese side wanted to get rid of Liu Xia because she was a burden." But even abroad, Liu Xia will not be completely free. "His brother Liu Hui was not allowed to travel with her because he is being held by the Chinese side as a means of pressure, so Liu Xia is not too politically active to abroad, "said the friend.
Others called it a "hostage". State security wanted to silence Liu Xia also abroad. The message is: "Your brother is here, you are like a kite, the limits of your freedom of speech are in the hands of others," the civil rights activist Hu Jia has formulated the threat. However, the brother had encouraged Liu Xia to leave the country without him.
"Now, the harassment of Liu Xia's family, who remains in China, must end," said Patrick Poon of Amnesty International. "It would be very foolish if the Chinese authorities used their loved ones to put pressure on Liu Xia to express her opinion in the future." However, the Society for Threatened Peoples (GFbV) spoke of the "current practice" in China of imprisoning innocent members of a family of human rights activists exiled for intimidation.
That the artist wants to become politically active is completely open – not only because of his health, but also because Liu Xia has never been a civil rights activist. Only through his marriage with Liu Xiaobo, the artist had fallen in the sights of state security. "Loving Liu Xiaobo is a crime," said Liu Xia in tears during a recent phone conversation with the Berlin exiled writer, Liao Yiwu. His treatment by the security authorities estimated that this 57-year-old man was a "life prison".
Her health condition has been described as bad. She had also been "completely confused" before leaving the country. After eight years of house arrest with all the restrictions, she was overwhelmed by the sudden release and departure "in a completely different world", was described. Not only friends but also UN human rights experts have long been "deeply concerned" by their mental state.
According to her friend Liao Yiwu, her depression is so severe that she can collapse unconscious or suffer from heart problems and other symptoms. You take powerful drugs against this, but you cause hallucinations. In a phone conversation on May 25, Liu Xia told the exiled poet, "When I'm dead, I will no longer be a burden to anyone."
Her husband Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to eleven years in prison in 2009 for "undermining state power." He was co-author of the "Charter 08" in 2008 calling for a "free, democratic and constitutional state". His friends recall Liu Xiaobo as a great leader of opinion and a gentle champion of democracy.
Civil rights activists Hu Jia and Ye Du have speculated that the release of Chinese leaders also aimed at gaining support from Germany to intensify the trade war with the United States. "Liu Xia is a diplomatic card for Europe, which is played for practical benefits," said Hu Jia. Similarly, Ye Du said: "Liu Xia was allowed to leave because China wants Germany's help in the trade war."
Phone conversation Liu Xia with Liao Yiwu
Pen America to Liu Xia
Pen America Videos
appeal of the UN
Commemoration on July 13 in Berlin
SCMP
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