The Washington Post is reporting that Chinese lawyer and activist? Gao Zhisheng is to spend another 3 years in Jail
And merry christmas to you too….
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China jails lawyer Gao Zhisheng for 3 more years, confirming status after long disappearance
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BEIJING ? More than a year and a half after prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared, China?s government gave the first sign Friday that he is alive, saying he would be sent to prison for three years for violating his probation.
A brief report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency did not answer key questions about Gao ? the condition of his health and his whereabouts now and in the 20 months since he disappeared, presumably at the hands of the authorities.
?Are they sending him to a proper prison? Which prison was he at before? Where were they hiding him?? said Gao?s brother, Gao Zhiyi, who has been on a quest to find his sibling.
Gao?s wife said from the United States she was still uneasy because of the lack of information.
?When I heard what they said, all I could think was ?Oh, it means he?s still alive,?? Geng He said, crying, in a phone interview with The Associated Press.
Charismatic and pugnacious, Gao was a galvanizing figure for the rights movement, advocating constitutional reform and arguing landmark cases to defend property rights and political and religious dissenters. Convicted in 2006 of subversion and sentenced to three years, he was quickly released on probation before being taken away by security agents in 2009 in the first of his forced disappearances that set off an international outcry.
The United States expressed deep disappointment over Friday?s announcement, describing Gao?s forced disappearance and treatment as a serious human rights concern.
?We?re especially concerned about Gao?s welfare and whereabouts, including reports that his family has been unable to communicate with him. We reiterate our calls for the Chinese government to immediately release Gao from custody and clarify his whereabouts,? spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington.
The Xinhua report referred to Gao?s 2006 subversion conviction and said Beijing?s No. 1 Intermediate People?s Court found that he ?had seriously violated probation rules for a number of times, which led to the court decision to withdraw the probation.?
The report did not explain what violations Gao had committed but said his five-year probation was due to expire next Thursday ? timing which legal experts said may have prompted the government to send Gao back to jail. ?He would serve his term in prison in the next three years,? the report said.
Calls to the No. 1 court and the city?s appeals court rang unanswered Friday.
Gao has been held incommunicado in apparent disregard of laws and regulations for all but two months of the last three years. When he emerged from the first 14-month bout in April 2010, he told The Associated Press that he had been shunted between detention centers, farm houses and apartments across north China and repeatedly beaten and abused.
He said he had been hooded several times. His captors made him sit motionless for up to 16 hours and threatened to kill him and dump his body in a river.
??You must forget you?re human. You?re a beast,?? Gao said police told him in September 2009.
