Bust Of Liu Xiaobo Placed In Times Square

Pro-democracy activists on Thursday placed a bust of the deceased Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo at Times Square in Causeway Bay.

The dissident died of cancer last year while serving a jail term for subversion. He had been sentenced to 11 years in prison after calling for an end to one-party rule on the mainland and the recognition of human rights.

The activists also called for the immediate release of his widow, Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest for several years.

Albert Ho, the chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, said the bust reminds people of the contribution Liu made to China's democratic development.

The activists said they planned to take the bust to Victoria Park when the annual June 4 vigil is held and then put it back at Times Square.

Liu rose to prominence during the 1989 pro-democracy protests centred in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, and became one of hundreds of Chinese people imprisoned for crimes linked to the demonstrations after they were crushed by the military.

It was the first of four imprisonments. His last was for co-authoring "Charter 08," a document circulated in 2008 that called for democracy.

He was in prison when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, which Beijing condemned as an affront to its political and legal systems.