The IAPL Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers
Reports today…
* Please note our cover image is of Gao Zhisheng as we are unable to find an image of his sister
The sister of “disappeared” Chinese rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng has taken her own life out of despair at her family’s treatment at the hands of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), RFA has learned.
“We have had bad news at the beginning of the New Year,” Geng said via her Twitter account. “I was shocked to learn that Gao Zhisheng’s sister [died] in May 2020.”
Gao’s sister had suffered greatly following her brother’s most recent “disappearance” three years ago, and had suffered from insomnia and depression, Geng wrote.
Geng told RFA in a later interview that Gao’s sister’s problems could be traced back to a violent police raid on the family home in 2006, as Gao was visiting the family during her husband’s terminal illness.
State security police used force to take Gao away, while his sister and her children were placed under house arrest in a nearby hotel, Geng told RFA.
“[After that], she became depressed and unwell, and couldn’t sleep at nights,” Geng said.
Gao’s sister’s home in Shandong had been under close surveillance during Gao’s most recent “disappearance,” which has lasted more than three years, Geng said.
