Slovakia’s parliamentary committee for human rights announced that it welcomed the decision to award this year's Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo and has adopted a resolution calling on the Chinese government to release the dissident from prison, the TASR newswire was told by the author of the resolution and committee vice-chair Ondrej Dostál (Most-Híd).
"Various people from Slovakia supported the idea of nominating Liu Xiaobo at the beginning of the year. These included 51 MPs – all but one from the-then opposition – and a few people from the academic sphere and non-governmental sector," said Dostál, who at that time represented a non-governmental initiative supporting Liu Xiaobo.
Dostál also pointed out that the parliamentary committee adopted the resolution solely thanks to MPs from the governing coalition, as the opposition abstained from voting. Smer MP Renata Zmajkovičová told TASR that it was her right not to vote. One of the reasons why she did not vote was that she views this resolution as an agenda suitable for the full parliament and not for a parliamentary committee.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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