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Wife of Chinese dissident worries about
his safety
AP, SUNNYVALE, CALIFORNIA
The wife of a prominent Chinese dissident said on Thursday she¡¦s worried about
the safety of her husband, who has been missing since he was last seen in China
six months ago.
Geng He (¯Õ©M) said she has not spoken to her husband, attorney Gao Zhisheng
(°ª´¼ÑÔ), since April, and she and her relatives do not know where he is.
¡§I know nothing of my husband¡¦s situation right now,¡¨ Geng said through a
translator during an interview in Sunnyvale, California.
Geng and her children were granted asylum in the US and she has been working to
find Gao, who was considered a candidate for this year¡¦s Nobel Peace Prize. The
award went to Chinese imprisoned democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo (¼B¾åªi).
Before being jailed and otherwise muzzled four years ago, Gao was the most
dauntless of a new group of civil liberties lawyers. He advocated constitutional
reform and took on sensitive cases involving underground Christians and the
banned Falun Gong spiritual group, angering China¡¦s authoritarian government.
When Gao first disappeared in February last year, the Chinese government gave
vague explanations about his whereabouts, heightening worries he had been jailed
or tortured as he was previously. The US and the EU called on China to
investigate his disappearance.
Gao was missing for more than a year before he resurfaced in March and said he
was abandoning his role as a government critic and hoped he could reunite with
his family. He said he didn¡¦t want to discuss his disappearance or whether he
had been held and mistreated by the authorities.
Geng said she last spoke to him in April, shortly before he disappeared again
after visiting his in-laws in far western China.
She said her husband is a good man who cares deeply about justice and has not
done anything wrong.
¡§The only thing he did was help his clients defend their legal rights,¡¨ she
said.
Geng said her children are becoming increasingly worried about their father.
¡§They need their father,¡¨ she said. ¡§I don¡¦t want to see them grow up without
the love of their father.¡¨
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