Chinese dissident Liu wins Nobel Peace Prize

(CNN) -- The 2010 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Liu Xiaobo, a leading Chinese dissident who is serving an 11-year prison term.

Liu was sentenced in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power. He's the co-author of Charter 08, a call for political reform and human rights, and was an adviser to the student protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Norwegian Nobel Committee head Geir Lundestad said 199 individuals and 38 organizations had been nominated for this year's prize.

Liu's sentencing prompted a groundswell of support for him from former Peace Prize laureates and perennial contenders.

Vaclav Havel, the hero of Czechoslovakia's 1989 Velvet Revolution (who never won the Nobel Prize), retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu (who did, in 1984) and the Dalai Lama (1989) were among a group of intellectuals who publicly urged the Nobel Committee to give the prize to Liu shortly after he was sentenced.

American writer Kwame Anthony Appiah, the head of the American PEN center, a literary and human rights organization, nominated Liu in January, he said.'

The Wall Street Journal reported in February that Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said it would be "totally wrong" for "such a person" to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and that the comment was later scrubbed from the official transcript of the briefing.

The Irish bookmaker Paddy Power had already paid out on bets for him to win the prize, it announced Wednesday after a surge in betting led it to suspect that information had leaked.