Gao Zhisheng

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Gao Zhisheng (高智晟), age 41, is a Chinese army veteran, self taught lawyer and Christian whose law practice has been suspended by the Chinese authorities.

1 Government criticism
2 Background
3 Shengzhi Law Office cases
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Government criticism

Zhisheng is director, founder and star litigator of the well known Beijing based Shengzhi Law Office. The office, because it is one few Chinese law firms involved with human rights issues, has been suspended by the Chinese authorities for one year. Mr. Gao and his family's ordeal started when his conscience led him to start investigating the persecusion of Falun Gong and wrote three open letters to the top Chinese officials.

Amnesty International says, "The closure comes shortly after the firm’s director sent an open letter to the Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao urging them to end the “barbaric” persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. It is believed that the closure of the firm is closely linked with this letter. [...] Amnesty International is concerned that this suspension will severely undercut the work of human rights activists in the country." [1]

Here follows parts from an interview with Gao Zhisheng in Dagens Nyheter 27 February 2006. At least eight police officers shadow him and his family. In his open letters, he criticised the communist party for crimes against human rights, particularly those rights that are written into Chinese laws but not followed.

"When the Nazis killed 6 million Jews that was condemned by the surrounding world. During the reign of the Chinese Communist party, 80 million people have been killed, why has the world around us done nothing?"

His criticism is remarkable because he lives openly in Beijing, where he is vulnerable for retribution.

The day after the second letter was made public on the Internet he got a threatening phone call "You have already revealed truths to the whole world, we have new truths to tell you. We know where you live and we know where your daughter goes to school." Shortly after they repeatedly noticed the same unknown people in the elevator to their home, and their daughter was shadowed by four people to the school. When Gao Zhisheng began to film the watchers they tried to cover their faces, for this Gao was arrested and brought to jail for a few days. He has also been subjected to cars trying to force him off the road.

Gao has said, "I predict one of three possible outcomes for me, death, prison or a change that gives me and the population of China the rights we should have."

On November 4, 2005 Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice's official notice closing the firm for failure to notify the authorities of its change of address and the “illegal” submission of legal documents to a lawyer who does not work for the firm, is received by Gao Zhisheng.

On January 17, 2006, according to an Epoch Times report, Mr. Gao escaped an assassination attempt allegedly ordered by the Chinese government. The attempted car crash plot came in the wake of the release of Mr. Gao's research reports on the prosecution of Falun Gong in mainland China, and his subsequent resignation of CCP membership.

On August 15, 2006, after numerous death threats and endless harassment, while visiting his sister's family, Mr. Gao was abducted by the Chinese secret police without any legal proceeding. No one in public knows his whereabouts.

On September 21, 2006, Gao was "officially" arrested. On October 13, his family-appointed lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said that Mr. Gao was suspected of inciting subversion.^[1]

On December 22, 2006, Mr. Gao was convicted of subversion. He was sentenced to three years in prison, which was suspended, and placed on probation for five years. The sentence also deprives him of his political rights - the freedom to publish or speak out against the government - for one year.

[edit] Background

Mr. Gao was born and raised in poverty in Shaanxi Province with six siblings. He joined the People's Liberation Army, was stationed at a base in Kashgar, in Xinjiang region, and became a Communist Party of China member.

He took a self-taught course on the law and won many cases in court including winning 100 thousand dollars in a medical lawsuit and a businessman's privatization lawsuit against local authorities in Xinjiang.

In 2000 he moved to Beijing and established the Shengzhi Law Office with a half dozen other lawyers.

In 2001 he was voted as one of the 10 Best Lawyers in China, because of his professionalism and integrity, often helping poor people without fees suing local Chinese government branches and officials.

[edit] Shengzhi Law Office cases

a land dispute case against Taishi village officials
a class action law suit against local authorities over coercion in implementation of China’s family planning policies
appealing the sentence of Zheng Yichun, a journalist and former professor who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment in September for his on-line writings
legal help for Falun Gong
legal help for an illegal Chinese house church.