On December 25, 2009, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court sentenced prominent intellectual Liu Xiaobo to 11 years in prison for inciting subversion. The Beijing High People’s Court denied his appeal on February 11, 2010. Prosecutors said Liu drafted and organized Charter 08, signed by thousands of Chinese and calling for political reform and protection of human rights. Liu was also punished for six essays he wrote that were posted on overseas Web sites. The essays were critical of Chinese Communist Party rule but did not advocate violence; one specifically called for non-violence. The 54-year-old Liu was taken into custody on December 8, 2008, a day before Charter 08 was released. He was kept in residential surveillance under conditions that violated Chinese law and arrested on June 23, 2009. Liu was detained in 1989 after the Tiananmen protests and served three years reeducation through labor for his writings in 1996. He is serving his sentence at the Jinzhou Prison in Liaoning province. On October 8, 2010, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Liu the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010.