Chinese police force Nobel Peace Prize winner's wife to leave home

The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner's wife Liu Xia was being forced to leave her home in Beijing by plainclothes police officers Friday, she told Reuters during a phone interview shortly after the prize was awarded.

The officers said they wanted to take Liu to the prison in Jinzhou in the northeastern province of Liaoning, where her husband Liu Xiaobo is being held in an apparent effort to prevent foreign reporters from speaking to her, she said.

"They are forcing me to leave Beijing," said Liu as her brothers packed her bags with plainclothes police waiting for her outside.

"They want me to go to Liaoning to see Xiaobo. They want to distance me from the media," she added.

She had been giving interviews to journalists by phone and a statement by her was also issued the Freedom Now human rights group, following the announcement that Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year sentence for subversion, had won the prize at 5 a.m. ET.

'Too many bad things'
In an emotional interview with Hong Kong's Cable television station, she said that she hoped the international community would now press China to free her husband, adding that the country itself should "have pride in his selection and release him from prison."

She said she had not expected her husband to win. "I can hardly believe it because my life has been filled with too many bad things. This prize is not only for Xiaobo but for everyone working for human rights and justice in China," she said. 

It was during the later phone interview with Reuters that she revealed she was being made to leave Beijing by the police. 

In that conversation, she insisted, "Xiaobo is innocent" and accused the Chinese government of acting illegally.

"The constitution guarantees freedom of speech. They (the authorities) broke the law first," she said.

The award offered hope to China's dwindling band of pro-democracy dissidents, she said." His friends repeatedly told me that they thirsted for Liu Xiaobo to win the Prize more than he himself did because they think it would be an opportunity to change China," Liu said.

The democracy movement is largely forgotten in China, with many Chinese abandoning activism and focusing instead on cashing in on economic reforms.