The wife of Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who is believed to have been forcibly disappeared since August 2017, has called on the Chinese government to return his remains, as she believes he may have been “persecuted to death.”
Gao Zhisheng is a Chinese human rights lawyer who was notable for frequently taking on human rights cases and defending religious minorities. He was first detained by the authorities in 2006, and subsequently suffered multiple disappearances, beatings and torture, as well as serving a prison sentence from 2011-2014. He was released in August 2014, only to disappear again on 13 August 2017. Gao’s current whereabouts are unknown, but he is believed to be in some form of detention.
In a statement made outside the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in San Francisco on 19 April, and later posted on Twitter, Gao’s wife Geng He claimed that she had had no news of her husband’s whereabouts or wellbeing since his disappearance. She also reported that police at the Yulin police department in the northern province of Shaanxi had admitted to holding Gao at the start of this month, but had denied Geng any opportunity to speak with him.
In her statement, Geng said: “It's not just that there is no news of Gao Zhisheng; the authorities' persecution of his family has been very severe too… The ID cards of everyone in the family have been confiscated by the authorities over the past 10 years, so that they aren't able to leave their local area, let alone go looking for him."
Geng’s plea comes as two groups promoting rule of law have called on the government to disclose Gao’s whereabouts “without delay.” The letter, jointly written by The Law Society of England and Wales and Lawyers for Lawyers, calls on the relevant authorities in the People’s Republic of China to “without delay identify and disclose the whereabouts of Chinese lawyer Gao Zhisheng and carry out a prompt, effective, and impartial investigation into his disappearance,” and to “immediately release lawyer Gao Zhisheng to the extent that he is being held by state authorities.”
CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: “CSW stands with Geng He as she continues to call for news of her husband’s wellbeing and whereabouts. Gao Zhisheng is a courageous human rights defender who has repeatedly stood up against injustice to protect the most vulnerable in society, at great cost to himself. He has been tortured, disappeared and harassed, while his family have also been targeted. With no information of his whereabouts for nearly four years, we call for his immediate and unconditional release, and for the authorities to end this inhumane practice of denying his family information as to Gao’s health and wellbeing. We also urge the international community to raise Gao’s case with the Chinese Communist Party at every opportunity and as a matter of extreme urgency.”