BEIJING: Leading Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo will be tried on Wednesday on subversion charges, his wife said, more than a year after he was detained following his role in a bold pro-democracy petition.”He will be tried on Wednesday,” wife Liu Xia told AFP by phone today.

“I have no hope whatsoever, I can’t even attend the trial,” she added, saying that authorities had barred her from attending. The trial will take place at the Beijing Number One Intermediate People’s Court, according to Liu Xia, who said she planned to wait outside the courthouse if she is denied entry.

Rights groups in China have said they fear that officials will rush the case through the courts during the Western holiday season in a bid to attract less global attention.

“We are seriously concerned that Liu will not get a fair and open trial, and his legal rights will not be respected,” said Jiang Yingying, a researcher for China Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists.

Both the United States and European Union have urged China to free Liu and end

the harassment and detention of political dissidents.

Beijing says the calls are

“unacceptable”.

“We oppose any foreign forces using this as an excuse to interfere in China’s internal affairs and judicial sovereignty,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters last week.

The 53-year-old writer, who was jailed for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, was arrested last December after co-authoring Charter 08, a widely circulated petition that called for political reform.

His lawyer Shang Baojun told AFP previously that the dissident would face the charge of “inciting subversion of state power” — related

both to Charter 08 and to articles posted on the Internet after 2005.

The charge, which carries a maximum jail term of 15 years, is routinely brought against those who voice opposition to the ruling Communist Party.

Rights groups accuse Beijing of abusing such charges to silence critics.

Charter 08, which was circulated online last year, calls for human rights protection and the reform of China’s one-party communist system.

It has been signed by

more than 10,000 people, including leading intellectuals, writers and dissidents, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders.

Liu has spent much of the time since 1989 either in prison or under various forms of house arrest or tight monitoring. But he has still remained an irritant to Beijing with his writings calling for democratic pluralism.