**Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo is facing trial in Beijing on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”.**Mr Liu, a prominent government critic and veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, could be jailed for 15 years if convicted.
He has been in jail since 2008, after being arrested for writing a document calling for political reform in China.
The EU, US and rights groups say the trial is politically-motivated and have called on Beijing to release Mr Liu.
Western diplomats have gathered outside the courtroom but are being denied access to the hearing.
It is not clear whether the trial has started yet.
China has dismissed the criticism as an “unacceptable” attempt to interfere in its internal affairs.
Mr Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, has said she had “no hope whatsoever” for the outcome.
She told reporters she too had not been allowed to enter the courthouse but would wait outside.
“If Liu Xiaobo is to be tried, then I should be tried as well”
Bao Tong
The trial has been heavily criticised by right groups, with Human Rights Watch (HRW) describing it as “a travesty of justice”.
“The only purpose of this trial is to dress up naked political repression in the trappings of legal proceedings,” Sophie Richardson, the group’s Asia advocacy director.
“Liu’s crimes are non-existent, yet his fate has been pre-determined,” she said.
‘Sense of crisis’
Mr Liu, a writer and former university professor, has already spent years in prison, under house arrest or under close monitoring since playing a leading role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests.
Liu Xiaobo: 20 years of activism
Timeline: The Tiananmen protests
He was arrested again in December 2008, after he co-authored a document known as Charter 08.
Released to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the charter called for greater freedoms and democratic reforms in China, including an end to Communist one-party rule.
“We hope that our fellow citizens who feel a similar sense of crisis, responsibility, and mission, whether they are inside the government or not, and regardless of their social status, will set aside small differences to embrace the broad goals of this citizens’ movement,” the Charter says.
Since Mr Liu’s arrest, Western governments, rights groups, scholars and a group of Nobel Prize winners have called for his release.
Bao Tong, the most senior official imprisoned following the Tiananmen massacre, also put his name to Charter 08 and said he should be included in the case.
“If Liu Xiaobo is to be tried, then I should be tried as well,” he said.
“If he is found guilty, this will be a problem because it will mean that the freedom of speech and freedom of expression guaranteed by the constitution are fake,” the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.