BEIJING  Nearly a year after he was seized by the authorities, the only news of one of China’s most tenacious civil rights lawyers has been that he “went missing” after his detention, friends and relatives said Friday.

They say they have not seen or heard from the lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, since he was taken from his home in February.

When his brother, Gao Zhiyi, inquired about his whereabouts in September, a police official in Beijing explained that he was missing, according to those who have spoken to the brother.

On Friday, The Associated Press quoted the brother as saying he had come to Beijing from his home in Shaanxi Province to seek one of the officers who had led Mr. Gao away. “He told me that Gao Zhisheng lost his way and went missing,” the brother said, according to The A.P. “We still don’t know anything.”