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Lawyers Call Upon Chinese Authorities To Provide Full Accounting of Gao Zhisheng Case

Date: 2011-12-22

“You going to prison, that’s a dream. You’re not good enough for that.
Whenever we want you to disappear, you will disappear.”
— Police to Gao Zhisheng during his enforced disappearance between Feb. 2009 and Mar. 2010
 
On December 22, 2006, Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers, was sentenced to three years for inciting subversion, with a five year reprieve and an additional year of deprivation of political rights. Today would have marked the end of his five-year probation—yet, Gao remains missing, held incommunicado since April 20, 2010.  Just 6 days shy of the expiration of this 5 year probation period, a Beijing court revoked Gao’s probation, declaring that he would serve his full sentence of 3 years, on account of “seriously violating probation rules.” The Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers calls upon Chinese authorities to provide a full accounting of Gao’s disappearance, a comprehensive explanation for his renewed detention, and confirmation as to Gao’s physical safety and well-being.

“You going to prison, that’s a dream. You’re not good enough for that.

Whenever we want you to disappear, you will disappear.”

— Police to Gao Zhisheng during his enforced disappearance between Feb. 2009 and Mar. 2010

 

On December 22, 2006, Gao Zhisheng, one of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers, was sentenced to three years for inciting subversion, with a five year reprieve and an additional year of deprivation of political rights. Today would have marked the end of his five-year probation—yet, Gao remains missing, held incommunicado since April 20, 2010.  Just 6 days shy of the expiration of this 5 year probation period, a Beijing court revoked Gao’s probation, declaring that he would serve his full sentence of 3 years, on account of “seriously violating probation rules.” The Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers calls upon Chinese authorities to provide a full accounting of Gao’s disappearance, a comprehensive explanation for his renewed detention, and confirmation as to Gao’s physical safety and well-being.

Gao’s disappearance of 610 days amounts to an enforced disappearance in violation of international law.[1] Despite international calls for information and Gao’s release, Chinese authorities have consistently denied that Gao was in their custody, insisting that they had no knowledge of his whereabouts. No information has been provided as to the probation violations that Gao allegedly committed, nor as to where he is being held. Given past reports of torture and abuse while disappeared or detained, the Committee is extremely concerned about Gao’s state of mental and physical well-being.

China has repeatedly avowed its commitment to rule of law, yet Gao’s case is illustrative of a documented trend of secret detentions and disappearances of Chinese rights lawyers and activists that escalated in 2011. The National People’s Congress will soon consider proposed revisions to the Criminal Procedure Law, one of which would allow authorities to hold individuals accused of endangering national security or terrorism at undisclosed locations for up to six months without family notification—in effect, authorizing incommunicado detentions and enforced disappearances. The Beijing’s court decision to revoke Gao’s probation is extremely alarming because it is the most recent attempt by Chinese authorities to cynically use the legal system to camouflage the illegality and arbitrariness of Gao’s disappearance.

The Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers calls upon Chinese authorities to:

• Provide information about where Gao Zhisheng is being held;
• Assure the international community that Gao is in a healthy state of mental and physical well-being, given past reports of torture and abuse;
• Provide a full accounting for the last 20 months of Gao’s disappearance
• Provide a comprehensive explanation for why Gao has been sent back to prison

The Committee to Support Chinese Lawyers (http://www.csclawyers.org) is a group of independent lawyers from outside China whose goal is to support lawyers in China in their quest to strengthen the rule of law there.

 

 

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[1] Enforced disappearance is defined under international law as the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty of a person either by state agents or with official support, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the detention or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person. Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, art. 2, G.A. Res. A/61/177, entered into force Dec. 23, 2006.