The trial of the internationally renowned dissident Liu Xiaobo is set to start tomorrow in Bejing. Although he was promised an open trial, European and U.S. diplomats have been refused access to the hearing. Chinese reform activists and his wife say they have been warned not to attend the trial.

Chinese court officials called Liu’s attorneys last weekend to deliver formal notice of the date of the trial.

The 53-year-old former literature professor, who was held for over a year without charge, has now been charged with “inciting subversion of state power” after co-authoring Charter 8, a petition that calls for political reform. Liu faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted, his lawyer says.

Rights groups in China fear that Liu’s case will be rushed through the court during the Western holiday season to attract less global attention.

Charter 8 was circulated on-line last year. It calls for the protection of basic human rights, the reform of China’s one-party communist system, and the abolition of subversion in China’s criminal code – the crime with which Liu has been charged.

According to Human Rights Watch, Liu will face a pre-determined political trial. “The only purpose of this trial is to dress up naked political repression in the trappings of legal proceedings,” a spokesperson told AFP.

The European Union, the United States, rights groups, scholars, a group of Nobel Prize winners and a consortium of 300 international writers have urged China to free Liu. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and writers organisation PEN have repeatedly called for his release.

Liu has been a thorn in the side of the Chinese government since 1989. He spent almost two years in prison after the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square, after which he was released without charge or trial.

During the protest, Liu had helped negotiate the safe exit of thousands of student protesters off the square. In the ’90s, he was rearrested for criticising the Communist Party of China. This time he spent three years in a labour “re-education” camp, from 1996 to 1999.