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IDHAE INFORMATION
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Human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng
has not been seen since 22 September. His family has been unable to confirm
his whereabouts. It is possible that Gao was detained by members of the State
Security Bureau, but the Chinese authorities have made no official
announcement of his detention. According
to Beijing-based human rights activist Qi Zhiyong, around ten plainclothes
officers and several police vehicles arrived at Gao Zhisheng’s home on 22
September. According to Hu Jia, another close contact of Gao Zhisheng, he
might have been taken away by officers from either the State Security Bureau
or the National Security Unit of the Beijing Public Security Bureau. However,
no one witnessed his being taken away. Repeated unsuccessful attempts to
contact Gao’s wife, Geng He, suggests that she is now prohibited from talking
freely over the phone. The
visit to Gao Zhisheng’s house by state security personnel was apparently
linked to his issuing of an open letter to the US Congress on 13 September,
drawing attention to the deterioration in the human rights situation and
stating that, in light of this, he could not support the country’s staging of
the 2008 Olympics. On 16 September, a group of police officers from the
National Security Unit of the Beijing Public Security Bureau stormed and
searched Gao Zhisheng’s home. At that time a « supervision and
modification » committee made up of Public Security Bureau officials was
reportedly established to deal with Gaoís case. Epoch Times
Staff : Hu Jia,
Beijing-based AIDS activist, received a phone call from Gao Zhisheng, China's
most prominent human rights lawyer, at approximately 9:30 p.m. on October 28.
It was
the first time Gao has contacted the outside world since being secretly
arrested by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) regime's authorities on
September 22. Not
long before that, Gao wrote an open letter to members of the U.S. Congress
condemning the CCP for having increased the persecution of religious and
human rights defenders before the 2008 Olympic Games scheduled to be held in
Beijing. Hu Jia
told our reporter, "I got a phone call from an unknown number on the
night of October 28. The area code belongs to Xian City, Shaanxi Province. I
recognized lawyer Gao's voice right away. I'm very familiar with his northern
Shaanxi accent. I was very excited and called out: 'Lawyer Gao!'" Mr. Hu
reported their conversation, which lasted only one and a half minutes. Gao
warned Hu Jia not to take risks to visit his family, otherwise, the
authorities would seek revenge against him. Hu reported, "Lawyer Gao
asked me not to go. He also asked me to think more about my family and take
good care of Zeng Jinyan and our unborn baby right now." Hu told
Gao that "Although I'm in unlawful detention, the first thing I'll do
after I get freedom is to visit your wife and Gege (Gao's daughter)." Gao
repeated, "I know you won't listen to me on this, but you'd better not
go." Hu Jia responded,"Your wife and kids are all in fear."
Gao replied, "They should be better now." Gao also told Hu that he
would be staying in Shaanxi Province and Shanxi Province for a while to take
care of something. Hu
passed on the news to Gao that Huang Yan, a Hubei Province-based human rights
defender and Gao's close family friend, was violently kidnapped by the
Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau's "National Security"
Squad on September 22. She was released on October 23, after a one-month
detention at Jin Zhou City, Hubei Province. Gao replied, "Please relay
my thanks to her for what she has done. I have to go." The phone call
was then cut off. Hu Jia
pointed out, "Under these circumstances, the main purpose of the authorities
allowing Gao to call me was to relieve the pressure from the outside to save
lawyer Gao. The authorities also did this to cut off my connection with him.
As Gao mentioned clearly for me to cut off the contact with his family, this
is the most important thing to the authorities." Hu Jia
said he was relieved to hear Gao Zhisheng's voice again. He is optimistic
about Gao's situation. He predicts that Gao will go back to Beijing and be
together with his family soon. Once
again defying his captors, human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng sent a 16-page
open letter to the U.S. Congress in which he calls attention to the abuses of
the regime in the preparation to host the Olympic Games. His letter was read
aloud at a news conference in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capital
Hill on September 20th. Most likely, the public letter and the news
conference are the reasons he was arrested by the Chinese security police
again September 23 and taken away to undisclosed location. BACKGROUND
INFORMATION Gao
Zhisheng wrote one open letter to the National Peoples' Congress in 2004 and
two open letters to Hu Jintao and Wen Jibao in 2005, before his open letter
to the members of the U.S. Congress, requesting that they stop the
persecution toward Falun Gong practitioners. In December 2006, he was
sentenced to three years in prison for "subversion of the state,"
with a five-year "suspended sentence," and denial of all of his
constitutional rights, such as freedom of speech and free association, for
one year. Gao and his family have been under strict surveillance by the
authorities ever since, and they have been repeatedly harassed. Thugs have
beaten his daughter, apparently under the direction of someone—or some
faction of—the CCP. In
April 2007, Gao Zhisheng reported other Chinese activists that he had been
treated harshly by police during a four-month period in custody in 2006,
including being handcuffed and forced to sit in an iron chair or cross-legged
for extended periods, and having bright lights shone at him. He said he only
agreed to confess to his ëcrimeí in order to protect his family. ACTIONS REQUIRED: Please
write to the Chinese authorities urging them to: your
own language :
urging
the authorities to ensure that human rights defenders can carry out their
peaceful and legitimate activities without fear of arbitrary detention,
torture or ill-treatment, or other human rights violations. ADDRESSES : President
Hu Jintao, People’s Republic of China, c/o Embassy of the People’s Republic
of China; 2300 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 20008, USA, Fax: +01
202 588-0032; Please
also write to the diplomatic representations of the People’s Republic of
China in your respective countries. TAKE ACTION NOW !
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