For defending underground Christian churches, farmers whose land had been appropriated by powerful officials, and Falun Gong, his captors tortured Nobel Peace Prize nominee Gao Zhisheng with electric batons and stabbed his genitals with toothpicks. They said if he he told anyone, they would kill him. Is it any wonder that Gao Zhisheng "disappeared" while in custody?
Two articles about Gao Zhisheng's "Disappearance"
The Economist
GAO ZHISHENG is, or now more likely was, "one of China's ten best lawyers", and that was the judgment of the Chinese government, his nemesis. For courage, he ranks at the top. Mr Gao, self-taught in law after being discharged from the People's Liberation Army, took up the cases of dispossessed farmers, persecuted Christians and members of the Falun Gong cult whom few lawyers were brave enough to represent. After documenting in great detail the state's barbaric persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, in 2005 Mr Gao wrote an open letter to President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao calling for an end to practitioners' detention, torture and humiliation. He then quit the Chinese Communist Party, calling it "the proudest day of my life".
That was when his own persecution intensified. His Shengzhi law office in Beijing was shut down. State goons attempted to run him down. He was taken into custody, beaten and charged with subversion. One torture session lasted 50 days, with police revelling in his pain and applying electric batons to his genitals. Mr Gao later published the details of this session in another open letter.
Just before that letter came out, nearly a year ago, Mr Gao disappeared for the last time. His brother has tracked down the policeman who detained Mr Gao back then. This cop has told him that Mr Gao "went missing while out for a walk" in September. If Mr Gao has indeed been "disappeared", may Mr Hu and Mr Wen be held to account for it.
The New York Times
Chinese Lawyer Declared ‘Missing’ After Arrest by Andrew Jacobs
BEIJING — Nearly a year after he was seized by the authorities, the only news of one of China’s most tenacious civil rights lawyers has been that he “went missing” after his detention, friends and relatives said Friday.
They say they have not seen or heard from the lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, since he was taken from his home in February.
When his brother, Gao Zhiyi, inquired about his whereabouts in September, a police official in Beijing explained that he was missing, according to those who have spoken to the brother.
On Friday, The Associated Press quoted the brother as saying he had come to Beijing from his home in Shaanxi Province to seek one of the officers who had led Mr. Gao away. “He told me that Gao Zhisheng lost his way and went missing,” the brother said, according to The A.P. “We still don’t know anything.”
Asked about the case, officials at the Beijing Public Security Bureau requested that questions be faxed, then declined to comment, saying they needed more time.
Mr. Gao, 46, has long been a nettlesome critic of China’s governing Communist Party, both in his writings and through his legal cases. Before the authorities revoked his law license in 2005, Mr. Gao, a Christian, represented members of underground Christian churches and farmers whose land had been appropriated by powerful officials. At one point, he orchestrated a hunger strike by practitioners of Falun Gong, the outlawed spiritual movement.
Human rights advocates say the disappearance of Mr. Gao is particularly worrisome, given the mistreatment he said he had endured during a previous incarceration. In a letter he published after his release several years ago, he said he had confessed to sedition charges only after more than a month of torture that included jabs with an electric baton and the piercing of his genitals with toothpicks. At the time, he said, his torturers told him he would be killed if he spoke publicly about his treatment in detention.
Even after he was allowed to return to his home in Beijing, Mr. Gao’s life was restricted by security personnel who constantly shadowed him and his family.
In January last year, his wife and two children fled China. The family was aided by a Christian rights group and has been granted asylum in the United States.
Mr. Gao had no advance knowledge of their flight, said his wife, Geng He. Less than a month later he was taken away.
In an interview from New York on Friday, Ms. Geng said she was stunned to learn that the police said they could not account for her husband’s whereabouts. “If he’s alive, let us see him,” she said through tears. “If he’s dead, tell us where his body is.”
Teng Biao, a lawyer and friend of Mr. Gao, said: “This is the first time the police have come up with ‘went missing’ as an excuse. That’s impossible. Gao was in their custody and could go nowhere.”
Susan Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the United States Embassy in Beijing, urged the Chinese government to ensure his safety. “Mr. Gao has courageously taken on cases involving corruption, illegal property seizure and religious persecution,” she said. “We believe such activities support China’s efforts to institute the rule of law and should be encouraged, not punished.”
Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China, based in New York, said the organization had collected accounts of Mr. Gao’s arrest from witnesses, who said he had been led away by security personnel, including local and provincial police officers, as well as special agents from Beijing who handle politically delicate cases.
“The government must give an immediate and full accounting of what they’ve done with Gao Zhisheng,” she said. “The world cannot allow them to act with impunity.”
Zhang Jing contributed research.