Christian Human Rights Lawyer Disappears After Being Recaptured by Chinese Officials; Friends Beaten

ICC Note: Nobel nominee, prominent Chinese Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng managed to escape from his hometown where he was under house arrest for 23 days. He and his friends who assisted him were unfortunately recaptured. Now his whereabouts remain unknown, though most likely he is held captive in Beijing. ICC urges the Chinese government to end his unlawful detention immediately.

11/9/2017 China (Christian Post) – Prominent Chinese Christian human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng reportedly managed to briefly escape house arrest. But he was rearrested and his whereabouts are now unknown, a persecution watchdog group has found.

International Christian Concern reported on Wednesday that Gao’s friends, Shao Zhongguo and Li Fawang, had helped the activist escape from his home in Shaanxi in August.

Gao hid in a vacation house in Jiexiu city for 23 days until he was recaptured by a large groups of state officers.

Li and Shao were also captured. Li briefly saw Gao when he was about to be sent back to Shaanxi for detention but “the encounter was so brief that Li was unable to utter a word to Gao. Gao’s whereabouts became unknown after they parted ways,” ICC reported.

“Both Li and Shao suffered mistreatment in detention. They were shackled, rejected daily necessities, beaten, fed leftover food, and Li, who suffers from diabetes, was denied medicine for the first few days and lost his eyesight as a result.”

The Christian lawyer’s wife and representatives have not been able to confirm what exactly happened to Gao, with the Communist government sharing little information.

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