Liu Xia and other relatives attend the sea burial of Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Liu Xiaobo off the coast of Dalian, China in this photo released by authorities in mid-July. Liu Xia had been under effective house arrest since her husband, a prominent dissident since the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, won the Nobel prize in 2010. Liu Xia had been allowed to visit him in prison about once a month and to remain with him while he was treated in his final days. In a roughly one minute-long video posted on YouTube on Friday, Liu Xia speaks directly to the camera while holding a lit cigarette. Before the death of her husband, Liu Xia had told diplomats and friends that she wished to leave China should Liu Xiaobo be released.

Source: Bangkok Post August 19, 2017 09:56 UTC