Liu Xiaobo's ashes scattered at sea

The hastily arranged sea burial of late Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo by Chinese authorities has sparked much criticism as his supporters believe that it was designed to ensure that his grave may not become a point of protests.

China cremated its only Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, on Saturday, and hastily poured his ashes into the ocean off north-eastern China but allowed only his widow and a few other mourners to bid farewell to the man who was also the country's most famous political prisoner.

Liu's ashes were lowered into the sea ensuring that there would be no grave on land to serve as a magnet for protests against the Communist Party of China, especially on the traditional tomb-sweeping day every April.

"As Mozart's Requiem played, Liu Xiaobo's wife, Liu Xia, first came forward to stand before his body," according to an official account of the funeral emailed by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "She gazed upon him for a long time and murmured her final farewells to her husband."

The mourners bowed three times before Liu's body, and Ms. Liu and other family members bowed three times again, the account said. After the cremation, "Liu received the container of ashes and tightly hugged it to herself," it said.

This is too evil, too evil," Guardian quoted the exiled author Liao Yiwu, a close friend as saying.

Mo Zhixu, another friend and activist, said: "The regime must be insane. They have done the worst thing you could have possibly imagined."

The artist Ai Weiwei said he suspected authorities had decided to bury Liu at sea to deny his supporters "a physical memorial site" at which to pay homage to him and his ideas. "It is a play," he said. "Sad but real."

Liu died on Thursday, aged 61, was the first Nobel peace prize winner to die in custody.