Family members of jailed lawyer Gao Zhisheng (高智晟) yesterday said that Chinese authorities have allowed them to visit him in prison, confirming for the first time since he was last seen nearly two years ago that he is alive and in good health.
Gao’s brother, Gao Zhiyi (高智義), said that he had seen his brother, but added it was “not convenient” to say more.
The dissident’s wife, Geng He (耿和), said her father and Gao’s brother saw him for half an hour on Saturday in an emotional reunion in a remote prison in Xinjiang. She expressed relief at proof her husband is alive and relatively well.
Geng, who now lives in California, said she was told Gao appeared paler than the last time his brother saw him two years ago, but seemed otherwise the same.
“Anyway, this is the situation that I am in,” Geng quoted Gao Zhisheng as telling his brother. “You should all take care of yourselves, help Geng He raise the children well.”
Gao Zhisheng has been a galvanizing figure for the rights movement, advocating constitutional reform and arguing landmark cases to defend property rights and political and religious dissenters. Convicted in 2006 of subversion and sentenced to three years, he was released on probation before being taken away by security agents in 2009 in the first of his forced disappearances that set off an international outcry.
The whereabouts of Gao Zhisheng, who earlier said he had been kidnapped and tortured by Chinese authorities, had been unknown for 20 months until state media reported in December that he was being sent back to prison for three years for violating his probation.
“The fact that he’s alive and that his family has seen him is a huge step forward given the fears we’ve all had,” said Jared Genser, president of the Washington-based advocacy group Freedom Now and an adviser to Geng.
With Gao confirmed alive, Genser said the next step was to rally foreign governments and UN groups to persuade the Chinese government to release him and allow him to be reunited with this family.
Geng said the news of the visit brought her relief.
“I slept well for the first time that night,” she said.
“But in the morning as soon as I got up, I was aware that the road ahead of me remains long. Gao Zhisheng’s ordeal has not ended,” she said. “I must keep calling for his release until the day he is free and we can be reunited.”
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