Chairman of the foreign affairs committee Árni Þór Sigurðsson told reporters that there is a strong possibility that the Icelandic government will demand the release of dissident and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo.
Liu Xiaobo was arrested and sentenced in December 2009 to eleven years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power”, in a trial condemned by the west as a sham.
Last month, Reykjavík mayor Jón Gnarr, meeting with Chinese officials, surprised them with a letter calling for the “immediate and unconditional release” of dissident writer Liu Xiaobo.
The question was brought up in parliament when conservative MP Birgir Ármannsson asked Árni Þór if the Icelandic point of view on the Liu Xiaobo case would more effectively reach Chinese officials. Árni Þór responded that the matter has been discussed in his committee, and now it is only a question of in what way the government intends to make its point of view known.
In the meantime, Minister of Justice and Human Rights Ögmundur Jónasson, writing on his personal blog, has called for the immediate release of Liu Xiaobo.