China should free Christian lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Gao Zhisheng

China should free the Christian lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Gao Zhisheng, who was kidnapped and imprisoned five years ago:

As China celebrates its New Year, a Christian human rights lawyer who has been kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured faces the fifth anniversary of his disappearance on February 4, 2009.
On that day, Gao Zhisheng, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for defending the persecuted, was snatched by a dozen police officers from his apartment. He has publicly accused the authorities of brutally torturing him behind bars.
Little more than a week ago, on January 26, China sentenced another prominent human rights lawyer, Xu Zhiyong, to four years in prison. Christian lawyers have also come under surveillance.
More than a year has passed since Gao Zhisheng’s family were allowed to contact him at the prison in Xinjiang, despite repeatedly begging for permission to see him. On his last visit, Gao’s elder brother was forbidden from asking about conditions at the prison. He said he was worried about Gao’s health and described him as emaciated, with a sore on his face.
‘Release partners are worried that Gao’s health will deteriorate if he remains in the custody of the Chinese Government,’ says Colin King, the UK director of Release International, which serves the persecuted church. ‘Release is urging China to set him free and allow him to return to his family.’
49-year-old Gao Zhisheng has vigorously defended the rights of persecuted Christians, religious minorities and the poor. The authorities shut down his Beijing law firm after he wrote three open letters to China’s leaders, calling for an end to the persecution of the Falun Gong.
The authorities revoked his licence and found Gao guilty of ‘inciting to subvert the state power’. The lawyer later described in detail how he had been tortured under interrogation.
On February 4, 2009, he was again arrested at his home in front of his family and taken away.
At the end of 2011 he was sent to Shaya Prison in Xinjiang to serve out an earlier three-year sentence. There has been no news of Gao Zhisheng for more than a year.

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