NTD Television

For a year now, Chinese Christian rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has been locked up in a jail in the remote Xinjiang region.

His family recently received a letter, supposedly from Gao, asking them not to visit him. His wife told Radio Free Asia last Friday that they don’t believe the letter is real. Gao’s elder brother, Gao Zhiyi, has since been trying to reach him at the Sansha Prison where Gao is held.

[Gao Zhiyi, Brother of Lawyer Gao Zhisheng]
“We’ve heard nothing from him. We can’t reach him. I’ve been calling the prison constantly, but they don’t pick up. It’s our right to visit him, but we can’t even do that, and there is nothing I can do about it.”

Gao Zhisheng is renowned for defending religious minorities and other disadvantaged individuals.

His activism—particularly his defense of persecuted Falun Gong adherents—led to his own suppression by the Chinese regime.

With the holiday season and the New Year approaching, fellow activists have called on the public to do some simple things that can help political prisoners like Gao—for example, sending a greeting card.

[Hu Jia, Renowned Rights Activist]
“The cards will not reach the political prisoners, but the officials will receive them. It’s almost the same as going to express support for the jailed dissidents at Sansha Prison. These warm words from the public may move the prison wardens. It also reminds them that people are watching and they can’t just do whatever they want.”

In December 2011, Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency reported Gao would been jailed again for three years, for violating probation rules. He was sentenced back in 2006 for so-called subversion. That original three year sentence was suspended with a five year probation period.

Since 2006, Gao has disappeared several times into detention. He’s given accounts of the gruesome torture he endured during those periods.

Original article