Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winning rights activist Liu Xiaobo has been released from prison on medical parole and is being treated in hospital for late-stage liver cancer, his lawyer said on Monday.

Mr. Liu, 61, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for “inciting subversion of state power” after he helped write a petition known as “Charter 08” calling for sweeping political reforms in China.

In December 2010, Mr. Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his activism promoting human rights in China, causing Beijing to freeze diplomatic ties with Norway. China and Norway normalised ties in December last year.

Mo Shaoping, Mr. Liu’s lawyer, told Reuters that Mr. Liu was being treated for late stage liver cancer in Shenyang and that medical parole had been approved. He did not elaborate.

Messages seen by Reuters from another lawyer for Liu, Shang Baojun, confirmed the news.

When asked about Mr. Liu, China’s Foreign Ministry, the only government body that will regularly answer questions from the foreign media, said it was not aware of the situation. The Public Security Ministry and Justice Ministry did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment.

A man who answered the telephone at the Shenyang hospital where Mr. Liu is being treated said he could not check information on individual cases as there were too many patients there. Tibetan writer and family friend Tsering Woeser said she had been in tears after reading online reports of Mr. Liu’s illness. “I'm shocked and deeply saddened,” she told Reuters. “All we can do now is pray for him.”

Liu Xia, Mr. Liu’s wife, who has been under effective house arrest since her husband won the Nobel Peace Prize, is suffering from depression but has been allowed to visit him in prison about once a month, a source close to the dissident told Reuters.

Mr. Liu was not allowed to attend his father-in-law’s funeral last year and his mother-in-law’s funeral this year, said the source who asked not to be identified. Mr. Liu had been incarcerated at Jinzhou Penitentiary in Liaoning, his home province in northeast China, before being moved to the hospital for treatment.

‘Incredibly sad’

In Oslo, the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee which awards the peace prize strongly criticised Beijing.

The committee is pleased that Liu Xiaobo is out of prison, but at the same time regrets in the strongest terms that it took a serious illness before the Chinese authorities agreed to release him, it said in a rare statement.

He was in reality sentenced for exercising his freedom of expression and should never have been jailed, it added, reiterating a standing invitation for Liu to come to Norway.

Rights group Amnesty International also confirmed the news of Mr. Liu’s illness. Patrick Poon, a China researcher for Amnesty, said on Twitter that the diagnosis was made on May 23.

Adequate care

William Nee, also of Amnesty, said authorities should ensure Mr. Liu was getting adequate medical care and he called for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Liu and his wife. “Obviously, it’s a shameful situation and it’s incredibly sad to see one of China’s most prominent intellectuals suffer from such a terrible illness when he never should’ve been detained in the first place.”

He also called for the Nobel Committee and the international community to speak up “forcefully” for Liu now. Supporters took to social media to express sadness at the news of his illness and denounce the Chinese government’s treatment of him.