BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed on Friday for 11 years for campaigning for political freedoms, with the stiff sentence on a subversion charge swiftly condemned by rights groups and Washington.

Liu, who turns 54 tomorrow, helped organize the ‘Charter 08’ petition which called for sweeping political reforms, and before that was prominent in the 1989 pro-democracy protests centered on Tiananmen Square that were crushed by armed troops.

He stood quietly in a Beijing courtroom as a judge found him guilty of “inciting subversion of state power” for his role in the petition and for online essays critical of the ruling Communist Party, defence lawyer Shang Baojun said.

Liu was not allowed to respond in court to the sentence.

“Xiaobo and I were very calm when the verdict was read. We were mentally prepared for it that he would get a long sentence,” said Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, who was allowed in to hear the verdict. She was barred from the trial on Wednesday.

“Later we were allowed 10 minutes together, and he told me he would appeal, even if the chances of success are low,” she said.

Liu has been among the most combative critics of China’s one-Party rule. His case attracted an outcry from Western government and rights activists at home and abroad. The unusually harsh sentence drew a fresh outcry that is likely to grow.

China “sees Liu Xiaobo as a representative figure, and think they can scare the others into silence with such a harsh sentence,” said dissident writer and Christian activist Yu Jie.

President “Hu Jintao believes that with the West weakened and human rights taking a back seat, he can ignore pressure over attacks on freedom of expression.”

Standing outside the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, a US diplomat said Washington was “deeply concerned.”

“We continue to call on the government of China to release him immediately and to respect the rights of all Chinese citizens to peacefully express their political views in favour of universally recognized fundamental freedoms,” the diplomat said.