Gao Zhisheng, the human rights lawyer who has been missing for over a year, appears to be alive and is currently staying at a sacred Buddhist mountain in northern China, his close friends said Sunday.

"He is in Wutaishan (in Shanxi province) but he would not say his exact location. I asked him what his situation was like, how his health was, and he said 'good'," friend and fellow layer Li Heping said. Teng Biao, prominent lawyer and good friend, also spoke to Gao.

Both men confirmed it was him on the phone. "I'm a good friend of his, and his manner of speaking, the words he uses, I'm very familiar with those," said Li.

Gao is a former Communist Party member who angered authorities by taking on rights cases targeting the government. He has defended some of China's most vulnerable people including workers seeking redress, underground Christians and the banned Falungong spiritual movement.

Gao’s fate became a mystery and a topic of global concern after police took him from his home last year. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband even raised Gao's case in talks earlier this month with Chinese leaders.

Gao did not tell his friends exactly where he had been for over a year. "We think there are people next to him, or that he has received a very big warning, that he's scared," said Teng. Li added that Gao told him he had friends with him and had to hang up, which implied he might be closely watched by officials who did not want him to talk.

Gao’s wife Geng He is tremendously relieved that her husband is alive. She headed into Thailand with her children, ages 16 and six, in January 2009, from where they sought asylum in the United States. "I just want Zhisheng to be with his family again. My children and I need him," Geng said.

Beth Schwanke, who serves as international counsel for Gao as part of the Washington-based group Freedom Now, urged China to let him come to the United States on humanitarian grounds. "We hope that it will allow Gao to receive medical treatment and to be with his family in the United States," she said.

In December 2006, Gao was convicted of subversion and given a suspended sentence of three years in prison, immediately placed under house arrest and put on probation for five years.

After he wrote an open letter to the US Congress in 2007, Gao said he was subjected to several weeks of torture including suffering electric shocks to his genitals and having his eyes burned by cigarettes.
 

Source: AFP