A prominent Chinese lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, is reported to have “gone missing” while in the custody of the Chinese police.
The Chinese authorities have told his brother Gao Zhiyi that he had “gone missing” while out on a walk last September. He was thrown into the jail last February after police ‘picked’ him up from his house.
A former People’s Liberation Army soldier and Communist Party member, Gao Zhisheng began his career as a pro-government lawyer but soon ended up as an active dissident. He made his name by representing “sensitive” cases, including coal miners, underground Christians and members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
US-based human rights group, ChinaAid, President Bob Fu, had helped Gao’s wife and two children escape to the US a month before he disappeared. He said, ‘It is totally unacceptable for the Chinese government to lose track of their own prisoner’, and added the implausible explanation raised fears that Gao was likely to have died in custody.
