Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo’s Wife detained in Beijing

The spouse of this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, was permitted to meet with her husband on Sunday at the prison in northeastern China where he is serving an 11-year imprisonment, but she was then escorted back to Beijing and placed under house arrest, a human rights group said.

Prison officials had informed Mr. Liu that he won the award -- a decision fervently condemned by the Chinese government -- the day before. In their hour long visit, Mr. Liu's wife, Liu Xia, said her husband had told her, "This is for the lost souls of June 4th," and then was moved to tears.

Hundreds died June 4, 1989, in Beijing when Chinese troops and tanks flattened pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Mr. Liu told his wife the award commemorates the nonviolent spirit in which those who died fought for peace, independence and democracy, the group, Human Rights in China, said in a statement.

In Beijing, Ms. Liu's telephone and Internet communication has been cut off and state security officers are not allowing her to contact friends or the media, the statement said. Nor can she leave her house except in a police car, according to the group. Her brother's phone has also been "interfered with," the statement said.