China says Nobel laureate cremated and his wife is 'free'
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Deceased Chinese Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo was cremated on Saturday and his wife is "free," a government official said, as a state-run newspaper attacked him as a "despised" criminal out of step with Chinese society.
Liu, 61, died of multiple organ failure on Thursday in a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang, where he was being treated for late-stage liver cancer, having been given medical parole but not freed. He had been jailed for 11 years in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power" after helping to write a petition known as "Charter 08" calling for sweeping political reforms.
His wife, Liu Xia, has been under effective house arrest since her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, but had been allowed to visit him in prison about once a month. City government information official Zhang Qingyang said Liu Xiaobo was cremated on Saturday morning, in accordance with his relatives' wishes and local customs.
