Gao Zhisheng, a prominent human rights lawyer who returned to his Beijing home earlier this month after being held in detention for more than a year, has disappeared again after enjoying just days of limited freedom, according to friends.
Gao was allowed back to his Beijing apartment on April 6, some 14 months after unidentified police dragged him from his family home in Shaanxi province, providing no explanation for the detention.
He was seen leaving his apartment sometime between April 9 and April 12, and getting into a vehicle parked outside his building. He was carrying just a backpack when he left.
Li Heping, a fellow lawyer who is close to Gao, says he has been taken to Urumqi, where he hoped to visit his wife's father, who lives in the capital of Xinjiang. Gao's wife, son and daughter fled to the United States in January 2009, with the help of banned spiritual movement the Falun Gong. Gao was detained within weeks of his family fleeing.
In a conversation some 36 hours after returning to his Beijing apartment with this reporter and other friends, Gao said he was expecting to be allowed to travel to Urumqi in a few days to see his in-laws.
Gao's father-in-law said Gao was brought to his house by four police officers after arriving in the city, but spent just one night there before police took him away again. His father-in-law called Li on April 21 to say Gao was to board a plane at 4.30pm to return to Beijing.