China opens trial of leading dissident Liu Xiaobo

BEIJING (Reuters) - One of China's most prominent dissidents, Liu Xiaobo, went on trial on subversion charges on Wednesday, drawing an outcry at home and abroad over the country's sweeping laws against political opponents.

Chinese prosecutors accuse Liu of "inciting subversion of state power" by publishing essays on the Internet critical of the ruling Communist Party and helping to organize the "Charter 08" petition, demanding a democratic remake of the one-party state.

Liu is fighting the charges but has no plans to appeal if the verdict goes against him, said his wife, Liu Xia, who is not allowed in court.

"With a government like this, a government without principles, there is nothing you can say," she said.

Lawyers entered the heavily guarded Beijing First Intermediate People's Court without commenting to a group of journalists while police cordoned-off the courthouse from a scattering of protesters, petitioners and foreign embassy personnel.

Liu, who turns 54 next Monday, has become a symbol of opposition to the Party, which has shown no signs of yielding to Western calls to release him and ease restrictions on political critics and human rights activists.

"We support Liu Xiaobo 100 percent. He was speaking out for the ordinary people," said Song Zaimin, a Beijing resident who signed Charter 08. Police confiscated a banner he tried to unfurl, as he shouted "Democracy Forever; Freedom Forever."

U.S. embassy official Gregory May read a statement expressing concern about the trial and called for Liu's immediate release.

"This (trial) has been timed for the biggest holiday time in the West, when the media may not be paying so much attention," said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, a New York-based group critical of Beijing.

"This charge is clearly a politicized one, and it's been used against lawyers, writers and land activists."

The charge of inciting subversion is a broad accusation that covers criticisms of the Communist Party and its policies.

China's Party-controlled prosecutors and courts rarely reject cases against dissidents, and the chances of Liu avoiding jail are slim. He faces a sentence of from 5 to 15 years.

Liu was detained late last year, as he and others were preparing to launch the "Charter 08" petition, which collected thousands of signatures. China did not arrest any other signatories, suggesting it wants to make an example of Liu but avoid more contentious prosecutions.

Expressions of support for Liu reverberated through social networking service Twitter on Tuesday, the day before the trial.

"For us, Xiaobo's case is about the right of citizens to free speech. It's a symbol of the restrictions we face in exercising what are supposed to be our lawful rights," said Wang Debang, a dissident in Beijing who also signed the "Charter 08" petition.

A former literature professor from the northeast, Liu Xiaobo joined a hunger strike supporting student protesters days before the army crushed a pro-democracy movement centered on Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. He tried to avert a bloody standoff.

He was later jailed for 20 months and then spent three years in a labor re-education camp during the 1990s.

The trial is likely to last one day and there is no certainty about when the court will announce its verdict.

(Additional reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by David Fox)