MCLC: Gao Zhisheng alive and well

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: timothy pi (timothy.pi at epochtimes.com)
Subject: Gao Zhishen alive and well
***********************************************************

Source: The Guardian (3/28/12):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/28/chinese-human-rights-lawyer-g
ao-zhisheng?newsfeed=true

Detained Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng 'alive and well'

Wife says Gao met family members under strict supervision for the first
Time since he disappeared two years ago

China's best-known human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, has been visited in
prison by his family for the first time since he disappeared nearly two
years ago, according to his wife.

The treatment of Gao, whose secretive detention has criticism from the UN's
human rights body, is one of the thorniest human rights disputes between
China and the US.

Senior Obama administration officials have raised it with Beijing, and the
US state department has called on China to release Gao immediately and
clarify his whereabouts.

Gao's wife, Geng He, who fled to California with the couple's children,
Told Reuters Gao met his elder brother, Gao Zhiyi, and her father last
Saturday at the Shaya county prison, in the far western region of Xinjiang.

His brother told Geng her husband appeared to be paler than usual, but was
in good physical condition, she said. But the supervised visit, which
Lasted around 30 minutes, gave the younger Gao no chance to say where he
had been for the past two years or to talk about his treatment in jail.

Geng said: "I said: 'Brother, why didn't you ask him ??? where was he
staying? Where was he all the years before?' [His] elder brother said: 'My
main purpose of the trip is to determine whether he is alive or dead. The
police will not allow you to ask so many things.'"

The elder Gao declined to comment.

Geng said the younger Gao had wept after he asked about his father-in-law's
health, and told his elder brother: "As I'm in such a state, I can't take
care of all of you, so please take care of yourselves."

A combative rights advocate who tackled many causes opposed by the ruling
Communist party, Gao was sentenced in 2006 to three years in jail for
"inciting subversion of state power", a charge often used to punish critics
of one-party rule.

He was put on probation for five years, formally sparing him from serving
the prison sentence, but his family was kept under constant surveillance
And he was sporadically taken into custody during that period.

Last December, state media reported that Gao was back in jail, in what was
the first official account of his whereabouts in the last year.

Geng, who has not seen her husband since January 2009, said she had hired
two lawyers to appeal against his punishment, and they could start the
process in May.

Gao was taken from a relative's home in Shaanxi province in northern China
in February 2009. He resurfaced briefly, making contact with friends and
foreign reporters in April 2010.