China: Nobel winner backers support crime

China said on Thursday that supporters of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo were encouraging crime in China and should stop interfering in his case. The 54-year-old literary critic is serving an 11-year prison term after being convicted of inciting subversion over his role in writing an influential 2008 manifesto for political reform.

"Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to such a person is equivalent to encouraging crimes in China. It also constitutes a violation of China's judicial sovereignty," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.

(AP)