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Rescue Human Rights Attorney Gao Zhisheng

Eminent human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng

We are seeking your support of Gao Zhisheng, a Chinese attorney and human rights defender known as “China’s conscience,” who was abducted on February 4, 2009 by Chinese security forces and whose whereabouts remain unknown. A description that Gao wrote of 50 days of torture he suffered in 2007 was released recently and the acts described therein indicate that he is currently at high risk of abuse and his life may be in danger.

The letter below is addressed to President Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, to urge them to act to help this central figure in China’s rights defense movement. Gao, a Christian and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, has been one of the most outspoken advocates of human rights and religious freedom in China, representing in court the full gamut of vulnerable groups and publishing open letters to the country’s highest leaders calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong. In September 2007, he wrote to the U.S. Congress expressing concerns about large scale human rights abuses taking place in the lead-up to the Olympics. He and his family, including his teenage daughter and 4-year-old son, have suffered immensely for his dedication to the cause of human rights, but he has not backed down in acting according to what he believes is right.

Please read the letter for more information about Gao and his account of being tortured by Chinese security agents to see why this man urgently needs your support.

It is only through high visibility and international pressure that Mr. Gao will be released. Indeed, international attention helped bring about Gao’s release from previous incarcerations. We urge you to do what you can to raise awareness and speak out on his behalf, as he has fearlessly spoken out for others.

Dark Night, Dark Hood and Kidnapping by Dark Mafia by Gao Zhisheng

Chinese Regime Charges Activist Lawyer with Subversion (Reuters, repub by The Epoch Times)

URGENT ACTION China: Further information on: Fear for safety/ death threats: Gao Zhisheng (m) (Amnesty International)

Read Gao's letter in support of Falun Gong

1. Read the appeal

[If you personalize the letter it will have more impact.]

September 2, 2010

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington D.C. 20500

president@whitehouse.gov

Subject

Dear Mr. President and Madam Speaker,,

I am writing to respectfully urge you to call on the Chinese authorities to immediately release prominent attorney and Nobel Peace prize nominee Gao Zhisheng.

Gao, one of China’s foremost leaders of an indigenous rights defense movement and often referred to as “China’s conscience,” was abducted by Chinese security agents on February 4, 2009 and his whereabouts remain unknown. His disappearance is all the more disturbing because of a harrowing account released recently of the 50 days of torture Gao suffered in 2007 at the hands of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials and security agents. Among the incidents described in the letter released by the organizations China Aid and Human Rights in China is the following:

“Then, the electric shock batons were put all over me. And my full body, my heart, lungs, and muscles began jumping under my skin uncontrollably. I was writhing on the ground in pain, trying to crawl away. Wang [one of the lead torturers] then shocked me in my genitals.”

Gao writes that on another occasion, “two people stretched out my arms and pinned them to the ground. They used toothpicks to pierce my genitals. I can't use any language to describe the helplessness, pain, and despair that I felt then. At a point like that, language and emotion do not have the power to explain.”

In his account, Gao says that the torturers mentioned they were using the same torture methods that they had earlier refined on Falun Gong practitioners when trying to force them to disavow the spiritual practice. He admits that he had tried to kill himself to stop the suffering, and that he believed that God helped him to come back from the brink of death.

Gao then mentions being threatened that should he expose the abuses he suffered he would be abducted again and tortured in front of his wife and children. Given that he has nonetheless publicized what was done to him and has indeed been taken into custody, it is feared that he is currently at grave risk.

For the past decade, Gao, a devout Christian, has worked tirelessly on behalf of the full range of vulnerable individuals in China—from disabled children to coal miners to petitioners, home-demolition victims, house church Christians and fellow activists—seeking to uphold their rights guaranteed under Chinese and international law. In 2001, he was deemed by the Chinese Ministry of Justice as one of China’s top-ten lawyers. Beginning in 2004, he was the first of China's high-profile human rights attorneys to speak out publicly against the persecution of Falun Gong, later authoring several open letters to China’s leaders detailing his own investigation into atrocities against adherents of the practice and calling for their persecution to end.

In return, his license to practice law was revoked, while he and his family were placed under constant police surveillance and subjected to beatings. Nevertheless, with a deep belief that justice and the rule of law will ultimately prevail in China, Gao has continued to speak out for what he believes is right.

His abduction and torture in the autumn of 2007 occured after he wrote another open letter—this time to the U.S. Congress—describing  a wide range of human rights abuses occurring in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics and raising concerns that the games themselves were harming the Chinese people.

With him having disappeared once again for exposing injustice, as Americans, we should not stand by in silence as this courageous and compassionate man faces inhuman treatment. I ask for your help in keeping the fate of Gao and the broader, growing contingent of rights defense lawyers in the public eye. I urge you to call on the Chinese regime to immediately release Gao Zhisheng, allow him to seek whatever medical attention he may need, and reinstate his license to practice law.

Such steps would not only help save the life of a man who has become a symbol of those in China pursuing the basic freedoms and rule of law many of us take for granted, it would also serve the United States’ own long-term interests. After all, the best partner for the international community would be a China in which decent, courageous individuals like Gao are honored, not tortured.

Thank you for your attention and leadership on this issue.

Sincerely,

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