{"id":28426,"date":"2014-11-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/lawyers-raise-case-of-gao-zhisheng-2376\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:35:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:35:46","slug":"lawyers-raise-case-of-gao-zhisheng-2376","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/press\/lawyers-raise-case-of-gao-zhisheng-2376\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers raise case of Gao Zhisheng"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Inter-American Federation of Christian Legal Professionals (FIAJC) sent a letter this week to Chinese president Xi Jinping expressing its concern over the situation of fellow lawyer Gao Zhisheng.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the letter, FIAJC, a group of legal professionals from across Latin America, call on the Chinese authorities to ensure that Mr Gao is allowed the freedom to travel and access to medical care, noting that he is in need of urgent dental treatment, but has been unable to travel to another city to receive this treatment. The authors further request that the rights and dignity of Mr Gao and his family are fully respected, and allege that the intensive surveillance of Gao\u2019s household has violated the family\u2019s right against intrusion into their home, which is guaranteed by the Constitution of the People\u2019s Republic of China (Article 39).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter also states that \u201c…the authorities\u2019 treatment of Gao, both during the time he was in prison and after his release, amounts to the violation of the personal dignity guaranteed to all citizens of the People’s Republic of China under the Constitution (Article 38) and recognised and upheld by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which China is a signatory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the FIAJC joint letter, national member organizations, including those in Chile, Brazil and Argentina sent letters to the Chinese ambassadors in their countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gao Zhisheng is a prominent Christian human rights lawyer who is best known for his work defending Falun Gong adherents, Christians, and other persecuted social groups. In December 2006, he was sentenced to three years in prison with a probation period of five years, on the charge of \u201cinciting to subvert the state power.\u201d During his probation he was forcibly disappeared and severely tortured in detention. In April 2010, Gao disappeared again, and on 16 December 2011, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that Gao had violated the terms of his probation and had been returned to prison for three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gao was released on 7 August 2014, and has been staying with family in Xinjiang, but is under heavy surveillance and has had limited contact with family and friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, \u201cWe welcome this initiative by the Inter-American Federation of Christian Legal Professionals. Not only does this letter express solidarity between members of the legal profession across national boundaries, it also raises key concerns about Gao\u2019s current situation. We join with FIAJC in calling on the Chinese authorities to allow Mr Gao the freedom to travel and access to medical care, to respect the rights and dignity of Mr Gao and his family, and to ensure that possible incidences of ill-treatment during his detention are fully and impartially investigated. We further urge the authorities to allow Mr Gao the freedom to travel to the US to be reunited with his wife and children, if he so chooses.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For further information or to arrange interviews please contact Kiri Kankhwende, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045 \/ +44 (0) 78 2332 9663, email kiri@csw.org.uk or visit www.csw.org.uk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Inter-American Federation of Christian Legal Professionals (FIAJC) sent a letter this week to Chinese president Xi Jinping expressing its concern over the situation of fellow lawyer Gao Zhisheng.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42567,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[131,128],"class_list":["post-28426","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-china","regions-east-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39012,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28426\/revisions\/39012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28426"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=28426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}