An empty chair will be left for jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo when ambassadors, royalty and other VIPs take their seats in Oslo’s City Hall for the ceremony.
Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, a democracy activist, is serving an 11-year prison sentence in China on subversion charges brought after he co-authored a bold call for sweeping changes to Beijing’s one-party communist political system.
Chinese authorities have placed Mr Liu’s supporters, including his wife Liu Xia, under house arrest to prevent anyone from picking up his prize on Friday.
China was infuriated when the prestigious 1.4 million-dollar (£890,000) prize was awarded to the 54-year-old literary critic, describing it as an attack on its political and legal system.
China and 18 other countries have declined to attend, including Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, but at least 45 of 65 embassies in Oslo have accepted invitations.
Nobel committee secretary Geir Lundestad said Mr Liu would be represented “by an empty chair – the strongest possible argument” for awarding it to him.
It will be the first time the peace prize will not be handed out since 1936, when Adolf Hitler prevented German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from accepting the award.
The prize can be collected only by the laureate or close family members. Cold War dissidents Andrei Sakharov of the Soviet Union and Lech Walesa of Poland were able to have their wives collect the prizes for them. Burma democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi’s award was accepted by her 18-year-old son in 1991.
Among the 1,000 guests expected at the City Hall ceremony are US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and US ambassador Barry White. In addition, about 100 Chinese dissidents in exile and some activists from Hong Kong will attend.
Several news websites, including the BBC’s and Norwegian broadcaster NRK’s, were blocked in China on Thursday, apparently to blot out any possible coverage of the ceremony. Some Nobel-related reports on CNN’s website were also inaccessible.
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