China’s famous human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been missing for more than three years and the Chinese Communist authorities have yet to issue any notice to Gao’s family. At the beginning of 2021, it was learned that Gao’s elder sister was in despair and committed suicide. Gao Zhisheng’s wife Geng He, now living in exile in the U.S., said that his sister attempted suicide twice before, because of the terror and the pressure due to what happened to her brother.
Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s top lawyers, represented cases of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China. Between 2004 and 2005, Gao published three open letters to the then head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, exposing the stories of torture and mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners in labor camps and asking the authorities to change their unlawful policy toward Falun Gong. In 2006, Gao had his lawyer’s license revoked for speaking out for the marginalized and persecuted groups. He was subsequently abducted from his sister’s house in Shandong and sentenced to three years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.” In 2017, after serving his sentence, he disappeared .
Now Gao has been missing for more than 1,200 days. According to his wife, Geng He, that is the longest period of disappearance for Gao. She is worried that Gao has been tortured badly and is also deeply worried about his health.
On the first day of the new year, Geng He tweeted that in May 2020, Gao Zhisheng’s elder sister in Shandong committed suicide by jumping into the river due to prolonged and deep fear, depression and despair about her brother’s situation.
Source: Radio Free Asia, January 4, 2020
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/bx-01042021155959.html