Brothers of Chinese Nobel peace prize winner described him as in good health despite being jailed for subversion
The brothers of a jailed Chinese Nobel peace prize winner have said that they were recently allowed a rare visit to see him and that he was in good health.
The three brothers also said Liu Xiaobo, serving a jail term for suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power", was taken to the family's home in Dalian, in north-eastern China, last month to mourn the death of their father seven days after he died, when Chinese families traditionally gather.
In a text message, the brothers said they visited Liu on 28 September in Jinzhou, Liaoning province, also in north-eastern China. They said Liu was healthy.
"He's fine. It is not convenient to accept an interview," the message said.
Liu won the Nobel peace prize last October. Since then, the government has reacted angrily to any support for the democracy campaigner and mostly cut off access to him and his wife, Liu Xia.
The brothers' visit was also reported by the Hong Kong Human Rights Centre, which said it was the first time they were allowed to visit Liu since July 2010.
The centre said in a faxed statement that Liu Xia may be allowed to visit her husband this month.
Liu Xia has basically been a prisoner for the past year. She has largely been held incommunicado, effectively under house arrest, watched by police, without phone or internet access and prohibited from seeing all but a few family members.
Her husband, a literary critic and dogged campaigner for peaceful political change, co-authored a manifesto in 2008 calling for an end to single-party rule in China. That earned him an 11-year jail sentence.
Lengthy detentions without arrest are illegal in China, but activists worry changes proposed recently to the country's criminal procedure law may make it easier for police to do that.
Activist Hu Jia, released this year after serving three and a half years in jail for sedition, said in a public letter that the proposals would legalise acts by the police that are now illegal but largely ignored, such as not giving prompt notification to relatives of anyone detained.
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