Liu Xiaobo sued by ex-associate
Gao Han, a Chinese dissident in exile, said that he had filed a suit against the Independent Chinese Pen Center (ICPC) led by Liu Xiaobo for illegal disbursement of donations, according to a news report published on Tuesday's Global Times Chinese edition.
![Liu Xiaobo.[File photo]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20101124/0019b93bd68d0e56ac5d01.jpg "Liu Xiaobo.[File photo]") |
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Liu Xiaobo.[File photo] |
The suit was filed in August with the US Federal Court for the Southern District of New York.
Internecine fights between democratic activists have happened before, but Gao has seized the spotlight by putting Liu Xiaobo, this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, in the dock, according to the report.
The rift between Gao and Liu began when Gao questioned the alleged irregular use of donations at ICPC councils in October 2005. Two years later, Gao was expelled from the organization for defamation and slander.
Since then, Gao has repeated many times that the expelling procedure lasted only 10 days from proposal to final decision, and the ICPC forbade any hearing, defense and review during the whole process. On the day of his expulsion, all articles published by Gao over the last four years were expunged from the ICPC online community.
Gao brought a lawsuit before the New York District Court and then the New York State Supreme Court in the past.
This time, Gao sued Liu before the federal court and accused Liu of violating freedom of speech and the procedure of justice and portrayed him as a representative of violation during the press conference held November 6.
During the press conference, Gao said that the legal bases he listed in the indictment were the First Amendment (of the United States Constitution) and the Fifth Amendment.
He also said the ICPC obliterated all his openly published articles and speeches that questioned illegal financial operations in the ICPC online community before using these as excuses to fire him. ICPC had violated the First Amendment. Meanwhile, the whole expelling procedure violated the Fifth Amendment.
Thus, Liu Xiaobo's behavior was contrary to what he stated in Charter 08, Gao said.
Gao also stressed that Charter 08 was more of a "means to counter" the Chinese government than guidelines to restrict their behaviors.
He challenged Liu in the meanwhile, asking how Liu could make others believe that he would succeed in China in the future if he could not accomplish anything now in his own little world.
However, Gao signed his name on Charter 08 composed by Liu, despite their disputes. Gao viewed Charter 08 as a milestone in their political movement, an effort he was not willing to see Liu rise to dominate.
In this lawsuit, apart from three Americans from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) who share joint and several liabilities in civil matters, the accusations point at five other signers of Charter 08.
Gao compared his prison terms with Liu's to remind the West not to shed the limelight only on Liu Xiaobo.
He pointed out that he had been sentenced to 18 years, longer than the sum of all three of Liu's prison terms.
After hearing that Liu had won the Nobel Peace Prize, Gao said, the first idea that flashed into his mind was that rogues become heroes when there are none. The prize has been given to the wrong person.
He also said that the reason why Liu expelled him instead of inflicting a sentence was that Liu does not have the power.
According to Gao, NED funded nearly all ICPC activities and kept a close watch on its administrative and financial operations. Stating these reasons, Gao also sued NED for joint and several liabilities.
The US government passed a State Department Authorization Act in November 1983, allocating $31.3 million to the founding of NED.
Headquartered in Washington, NED aims to strengthen democratic institutions around the world and fund non-government organizations and groups.
Although administered as a private organization, NED's funding comes almost entirely from an appropriation by Congress, apart from a small share from civil donations.
