(Bloomberg) -- The widow of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo was allowed to leave China and travel to Europe, her brother said in a social media post, ending her house-arrest ordeal after a German-led diplomatic push.

Liu Xia, who was placed under house arrest after her husband’s subversion conviction in 2009, had left Beijing “to start a new life,” her brother, Liu Hui, said on the WeChat messaging platform Tuesday. She was traveling on a Finnair Oyl flight bound for Helsinki, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified diplomats.

Liu Xia’s release comes almost a year after her husband succumbed to liver cancer in a secure Beijing hospital bed, the first Nobel laureate to die under guard since pacifist and Nazism critic Carl von Ossietzky’s death in Germany in 1938. Liu Xiaobo’s death -- after serving eight years in prison for advocating an end to one-party rule -- prompted renewed calls for Liu Xia’s freedom.

Liu Xia’s supporters had sought for her to emigrate to Germany and the country’s ambassador to China, Michael Clauss, told the South China Morning Post in April that the dissident should “enjoy the freedom of movement and to travel wherever she desires.” A reporter’s question during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s May visit to Beijing prompted Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to defend his country’s human rights record.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday. A spokesman for the German Embassy in Beijing said he was unable to confirm any details and referred inquiries to the German Foreign Office.

The move comes a day after Merkel met with Li in Berlin and praised China’s greater openness to foreign investment.

China is trying to cast itself as an ally in Germany’s defense of a rules-based global trade order and international agreements including the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord, which have been challenged by U.S. President Donald Trump.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Tony Czuczka in Berlin at aczuczka@bloomberg.net;Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jason Koutsoukis

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