China’s best known human rights lawyer, missing for a year and feared dead, appears to be alive and is staying at a Buddhist landmark in north China after speaking to a reporter and another dissident lawyer on Sunday.
Telegraph [UK]
28 Mar 2010
Gao Zhisheng, a Christian lawyer who helped defend members of China’s banned Falun Gong spiritual group, was abducted from his relative’s home in Shanxi province on Feb 4, 2009. Authorities have failed to provide consistent information on his fate.
Mr Gao told the Reuters news agency by telephone on Sunday that he had been released about half a year ago and was in Wutai mountain, a sacred Buddhist landmark in coal-rich Shanxi province…
…Asked if he now planned to join his family in exile in the United States, Mr Gao said: “It’s not that easy.” He appeared to be under some sort of police surveillance and declined further comment…
…Mr Gao had previously published an account of his torture while in detention. Self-educated, he had grown disenchanted with the Chinese system while representing Falun Gong practitioners and underground Christians.
In 2005, he wrote an open letter to China’s president and premier, calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, which China regards as an “evil” cult.
The entire article is at the Telegraph.
