"Dr. Liu's chair will be conspicuously empty at today's award ceremony," said Irwin Cotler, a member of Liu's international legal team and a law professor at Canada's McGill University.

Liu, a 54-year-old writer and former university professor, was at the forefront of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

He was jailed in December 2009 for 11 years on subversion charges after co-authoring "Charter 08", a manifesto that spread quickly on the Internet calling for political reform and greater rights in China.

Liu's empty chair at Friday's ceremony in Oslo city hall "should remind the world that the (Chinese) government also kept other family members and human rights activists from leaving the country, in order to prevent them from attending the ceremony," Cotler said in a statement.

"Such actions are unfortunately representative of the gap between the promises China has undertaken in its constitution and the reality on the ground, where respect for the rule of law has taken a back seat to economic reforms and development," he added.

Beijing has reacted with fury to the prize, threatening "consequences" for countries that show Liu support and clamping down on media and dissidents at home.

The laureate's wife, Liu Xia, has been placed under house arrest since the prize was announced on October 8, and hours before Friday's ceremony in Oslo, security was strong in front of her Beijing apartment complex, with marked and unmarked police cars lining the road.

"Sadly, because the government continues to illegally detain Dr. and Mrs. Liu, they were not able to join us in Oslo today to celebrate this great honour," Maran Turner, another member of the international Freedom Now legal team said in the statement.

Friday marks only the second time in the more than 100-year history of the prize that neither the laureate nor a representative will be able to accept the award.

The only other time was when German journalist and pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, who was locked up in a Nazi concentration camp, could not travel to Oslo for his prize ceremony in 1936.

earlier related report
China clamps down on dissidents, media ahead of Nobel
Beijing (AFP) Dec 10, 2010 - China clamped down on dissidents, the Internet and the media on Friday as the Nobel committee readied to honour peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, with activists missing and strong security at his wife's flat.

A ceremony in Liu's honour was due to take place later Friday in Oslo, but neither Liu, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence, his wife -- under house arrest -- nor other members of his family were able to collect his award.

China has reacted with fury to the prize, blocking scores of activists and lawyers from leaving the country in an apparent bid to stop them from going to the ceremony in the Norwegian capital.

On Friday, many dissidents in China were either unaccounted for or under strict surveillance, with many unable to communicate to the outside world as their Internet access was cut off and phone use limited, rights groups said.

Security was strong in front of the Beijing apartment complex where Liu's wife Liu Xia lives, with marked and unmarked police cars lining the road. Several officers stood guard, asking reporters for their names.

Liu Xia has been essentially confined to the flat since the prize was announced in October. She was initially able to communicate sporadically via Twitter but has not been heard from directly in weeks.

Jean-Philippe Beja, a China expert and friend of the couple, said he had heard news of her through a third party.

"She has books, she paints and she speaks to her mother and brothers every day on the phone. Apparently she is in ok spirits," Beja told AFP.

Security was also strong in other parts of Beijing, such as at the United Nations compound where a protest took place earlier in the day, although it was unclear how big it was or whether it was linked to Liu.

A UN official told AFP there were protesters at the building every year on December 10 -- Human Rights Day -- but that Friday's group was larger than previous gatherings.

Some activists based in Beijing have been forced to leave the capital in anticipation of the ceremony, while others decided to travel to avoid any problems with the authorities.

Li Fangping, a Beijing-based human rights lawyer who had been under constant surveillance in the capital in recent weeks, told AFP he left Tuesday for the southeastern province of Fujian.

"Police took me to the airport," he said, adding he had been told not to leave China and not to say anything related to Liu and the prize. He said he planned to return home on Sunday.

Teng Biao, another rights lawyer and professor, was seized by police after teaching a class and taken to a county outside Beijing, where he will be held until Sunday, activist group Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) said.

AFP made repeated attempts to call Teng Biao, but a message said the phone was out of service. A similar message was heard when AFP tried to phone Mo Shaoping, the head of the law firm that represents Liu.

The whereabouts of other dissidents were unknown. CHRD said Zhang Zuhua, a co-author along with Liu of Charter 08, a petition calling for political reform in China, had been abducted Thursday by police from the street near his home.

Charter 08 was published two years ago to the day, on December 10, 2008.

Liu was jailed in December 2009 for subversion, and the government has denounced the prize as tantamount to encouraging crime.

AFP attempts to reach Zhang by telephone were unsuccessful, as the phone appeared to have been turned off.

China's state-run Global Times newspaper on Friday compared the prize ceremony to a cult ritual, saying the event was a "farce that puts China on trial".

Censors have also apparently begun blocking reports on foreign television networks about Liu.

CNN, BBC and French-language satellite channel TV5 were intermittently blacked out on Friday, as they were when Liu was named the peace prize winner two months ago. The Nobel committee's website was also blocked.

China has a huge online censorship system that aggressively blocks sites or snuffs out Internet content and commentary on topics considered sensitive, such as Beijing's human rights record and criticisms of the government.

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