Chinese dissident

Gao Zhiyi, Gao Zhisheng's elder brother, received a court notice on Sunday confirming his brother was being held in Shaya prison in the remote northwestern province of Xinjiang, China. He read the letter to Deutsche Welle over the telephone: "the letter I received on January 1 from Shaya prison reads: ‘Dear Gao Zhiyi, your younger brother Gao Zhisheng committed the crime of subversion. He has been sentenced to three years imprisonment by the Beijing Supreme Court. He was sent to Shaya prison for reformation."

In the hope that Chinese internet users will travel to his prison to visit the detained dissident, a human rights organization announced the news immediately upon receiving confirmation that Gao Zhisheng is being held in a remote prison. The detention center is located in the Taklamakan desert, far away from Chinese inland, where many of the country's dissidents are locked up.

Activist lawyer

As a prominent lawyer supporting the rights of his clients, Gao was originally arrested in 2006 and sentenced to three years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power," but was given five years on probation, during which period he was repeatedly arrested.

He was arrested again and held in an undisclosed location in 2009 and briefly released in April of 2010 before being arrested again. Last month, Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, reported that Gao Zhisheng had been arrested and sentenced to three years in jail for "seriously violating" his probation.

"We haven't heard anything about him since last year. Whenever we inquired about his whereabouts, they said he had disappeared and that they had no idea where he was," Gao Zhiyi told Deutsche Welle. He also said he was worried about his younger brother: "how can we feel good about the news? I am an old farmer. I don't understand what he does. Now our family is incomplete and he is suffering in jail. What is he aiming at?"

Despite his disappointment, Gao Zhiyi says he is ready to make the long trip and visit his brother in prison. "We want to see how he is doing. We can do nothing but accept the fact that he is in prison."

'Worse than usual'

Although the Chinese government is tough on dissent, Hu Jia, a Chinese human rights activist, says Gao Zhisheng's sentence is worse than usual. "Two weeks before his sentence was up, the authorities decided to send him back to prison. His case reflects the arbitrariness and abuse of power of the Chinese system. Gao Zhisheng has not been judged by a judge, but by the party and its power."

Albert Ho, a politician from Hong Kong, told Deutsche Welle Gao's case is "a humiliation to the Chinese legal system," adding, "over the past few years he had no freedom, just as if he were living in jail. But still the authorities accused him of violating the rules. I think this is a real invasion of Gao Zhisheng's human rights."

Being under constant surveillance, his wife, Geng He, and children have fled to the United States, where politicians have spoken in his favor.

Rights groups and the United States as well as the European Union and the United Nations have called on Beijing to release him, as his detention goes against international laws.

Author: Sarah Berning / wy / mw
Editor: Arun Chowdhury