Update | Wife of freed Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng fears husband tortured
Spouse of dissident advocate Gao Zhisheng confirms her husband is out of prison but struggling to eat and may be in poor health
Mainland human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was released from prison yesterday, his wife said, but she believed he had been tortured in jail and voiced fears for his safety.
Gao's wife, Geng He, who fled to the United States with their two children in 2009, said she managed to speak briefly to her husband on the phone last night when he was with a relative, but was unable to finish the conversation because they appeared to be under police surveillance.
Geng said the only thing her husband told her was that "his teeth were in a bad way".
Then the relative, who seemed to be nervous, took over the phone and said several of Gao's front upper and lower teeth were so loose that he had to tear a bread bun into pieces before eating it.
"From the state of his teeth, I think we can believe he has been tortured," Geng said in a quivering voice, weeping over the phone.
"If his teeth were like this, can the rest of his body be any good?