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Verna Yu

Jailed Chinese journalist Gao Yu, whose health continues to deteriorate, has had the outcome of the appeal against her seven-year sentence delayed for two months, her lawyer said on Saturday.
Gao, 71, has a long history of heart disease and high blood pressure and her brother, Gao Wei, warned: “This is now a life-threatening situation.”
The journalist was convicted of “illegally leaking state secrets abroad” in April for allegedly passing an internal Communist Party document to a US-based news website.
Her lawyer, Shang Baojun, said the Beijing High Court had told him that the outcome of her appeal, originally due this week, had now been delayed. Most cases were delayed for two months, he said.
Phone calls to the Beijing High Court went unanswered on Saturday.
Shang met Gao for 50 minutes on Friday and said that the heart pain she had been suffering from was now more serious and frequent, which had led to her medication being doubled.
She was also continuing to suffer from high blood pressure, Ménière’s disease – a disorder of the inner ear that causes dizziness and fluctuating hearing loss – and a chronic skin allergy, he said.
Gao’s left hand was also suffering numbness and the loss of muscle control and the cause of this was still unknown, but she had been given only painkillers for this problem, he said.
The journalist has been held in a police detention centre since she was detained in April last year, and has remained there since her sentencing.
Shang said Gao had often been required to talk to the police.
“I think she is under a lot of mental pressure and we’re extremely worried about her health,” he said.
Gao Wei said he was concerned about his sister's heart condition and feared the loss of motor control in one of her hands could be an early sign of thrombosis or a stroke. He said she was in urgent need of a thorough health check.
“She has been sentenced to seven years in jail. If her health continues to deteriorate at this rate then she won’t last long,” he said.
Her heart problem started 25 years ago when she was detained after the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement.
The journalist, known for her hard-hitting reports on elite politics, has been jailed twice before. She was locked up for 15 months on the eve of the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, and jailed again in 1993 for six years for leaking state secrets in her writing on politics.
Gao was detained again in April last year and accused of leaking a party memo called Document No 9, which ordered cadres to tackle seven subversive influences on society, including “Western constitutional democracy” and “universal values” such as human rights and free speech.
She has insisted she is innocent.
 
 


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Human rights in China

Jailed Chinese journalist Gao Yu's appeal verdict delayed for two months

Chinese journalist Gao Yu, 71, was jailed for seven years after being convicted of 'illegally leaking state secrets abroad' in April. Photo: AP

Veteran Chinese journalist Gao Yu jailed for seven years for leaking state secrets

Gao Yu says she will appeal against the sentence. Photo: EPA

Gao Yu says she will appeal against the sentence. Photo: Associated Press

News

China

People & Culture

Health fears rise after Gao's heart pain intensifies as her brother, Gao Wei, warns: ‘If her health continues to deteriorate at this rate then she won't last long.’


Health fears rise after Gao’s heart pain  intensifies as her brother, Gao Wei, warns: ‘If her health continues to deteriorate at this rate then she won't last long.’


Jailed Chinese journalist Gao Yu's appeal verdict delayed for two months

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Health fears rise after Gao's heart pain intensifies as her brother, Gao Wei, warns: ‘If her health continues to deteriorate at this rate then she won't last long.’

Health fears rise after Gao's heart pain intensifies as her brother, Gao Wei, warns: ‘If her health continues to deteriorate at this rate then she won't last long.’