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China says missing rights lawyer now
working in Xinjiang
AP, BEIJING
Monday, Feb 15, 2010, Page 1
A Chinese lawyer missing for more than a year is in Xinjiang, a human rights
group says it was told by Chinese authorities.
The case of Gao Zhisheng (°ª´¼ÑÔ), one of China¡¦s most daring lawyers, has drawn
international attention for the unusual length of his disappearance and for his
earlier reports of the torture he said he faced from security forces.
A short statement from the San Francisco-based human rights group, the Dui Hua
Foundation, said it had been told by the Chinese embassy in Washington that Gao
was working in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.
John Kamm, the executive director of the foundation, said while the news is a
¡§tentative step in the right direction toward accountability,¡¨ there are still
many questions that need to be answered if it is true Gao is in Urumqi.
¡§What is he doing there? How long has he been there?¡¨ Kamm said yesterday from
San Francisco.
Gao was known for his legal work on sensitive cases involving underground
Christians and the banned Falun Gong movement.
Gao disappeared from his home town in Shaanxi Province on Feb. 4 last year, and
until now, the government that so closely monitored him had not said where he
was. The US and the EU have called on China to investigate Gao¡¦s disappearance.
In a written statement made public just before he disappeared last year, Gao
described severe beatings from Chinese security forces, electric shocks to his
genitals, and cigarettes held to his eyes during a 2007 detention.
Gao was arrested in August 2006, convicted at a one-day trial and placed under
house arrest. State media at the time said he was accused of subversion on the
basis of nine articles posted on foreign Web sites.
The constant police surveillance wore on his wife and children and they fled
China a month before Gao disappeared and were accepted by the US as refugees.
Previously, officials have been vague on his whereabouts, with a policeman
telling Gao Zhiyi that his brother ¡§went missing,¡¨ and a Foreign Ministry
official last month saying the self-taught lawyer ¡§is where he should be.¡¨
Chinese state-run media have not mentioned the case.
Gao Zhiyi (°ª´¼¸q) said yesterday that he did not know where his brother was, and
he had been trying to contact Beijing police, ¡§but no one answers the phone.¡¨
Jerome Cohen, an expert on China¡¦s legal system at New York University School of
Law, said it is an important case because authorities had to be answerable for
Gao Zhisheng¡¦s disappearance.
¡§Why the Chinese government chooses to play it this way is baffling,¡¨ Cohen said
from New York.
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