China releases Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo with terminal cancer

BEIJING - 26 June 2017: China's jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Liu Xiaobo has been granted medical parole after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer last month, his lawyer told AFP on Monday.

Liu, who had about three years of his 11-year sentence to serve, was diagnosed on May 23 and was released days later, said lawyer Mo Shaoping.

The democracy campaigner was being treated at a hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang.

"He has no special plans. He is just receiving medical treatment for his illness," Mo said.

The international community had been calling for years for the release of the 2010 Nobel winner.

The writer, now 61, was jailed in 2009 for spearheading a bold petition for democratic reforms.