The wife of jailed Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo appeared in public on Tuesday after years of house arrest to attend the trial of her brother, his lawyer said. Liu Hui went on trial in Beijing on a fraud charge connected to a real-estate deal on Tuesday, his attorney Mo Shaoping said. Liu Xia, who is Liu Hui's sister and Liu Xiaobo's wife, attended the hearing in what appeared to be her first trip outside her home in Beijing since being placed under house arrest after her husband was awarded the Nobel prize in 2011. She has not been formally charged with any crime.

Chinese authorities have detained the brother-in-law of jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo on a fraud charge, his lawyer said on Friday. Police detained Liu Hui in January on suspicion of committing fraud in connection with a real-estate deal, human rights lawyer Mo Shaoping told AFP, adding that the evidence of fraud was "insufficient". "He (Liu Hui) should face trial soon, within a month," Mo said, adding that he had been detained after becoming involved in a "civil dispute".

Hong Kong journalists have condemned an attack on two cameramen outside the Beijing home of the wife of jailed Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, slamming it as a violation of press freedom. The pair were beaten up by a group of unidentified men when they were filming an activist's attempt to visit Liu Xia, who is herself under house arrest, at her apartment building on Friday.