Harmful effects

On December 22, 2006, a Beijing court sentenced Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng to three years in prison for 'inciting subversion', the charge frequently used to silence independent voices like that of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. But the court suspended Gao's sentence subject to five years of probation. What seemed like a light sentence, however, soon turned into a nightmare of 'disappearances' and torture.

Gao was last seen on April 20, 2010. For 20 months afterwards, there was widespread uncertainty about whether he was still alive. Then, last December 16, just days before his five-year probation would have been completed, the Chinese government announced that it had been revoked and that he would begin serving the three-year prison term. On January 1, the government notified Gao's brother that it is now holding him in a prison in far-western China. Today, Gao's international pro bono legal team submitted a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, seeking a determination that this latest imprisonment violates international law.

Print option is available for subscribers only.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.