Additional Name(s): 高智晟

Gender: Male

Perpetrator: China

Ethnic Group: Han

Religion or Belief: Christian – Protestant

Reports of Torture: Yes

Date of Detainment: August/13/2017

Current Status: Unknown

Most Recent Type of Abuse: Disappeared

Reason for Persecution: Human Rights Work for Religious Communities Legal Work for Religious Communities

Nature of Charges: Not Applicable

Gao Zhisheng

Extra Bio Info:

Gao Zhisheng remains forcibly disappeared for his work defending human rights and religious minorities.

On August 13, 2017, Gao, a human rights lawyer, was forcibly disappeared from his home in Jia County, Yulin Municipality, Shaanxi Province.  His exact whereabouts and condition are unknown.

Gao has previously served time in prison and been subjected to forced disappearance.  He was well known for representing Christians and Falun Gong practitioners and criticizing the state's treatment of them. In August 2006, Gao was forcibly disappeared and then later found guilty of subversion.  He was sentenced to three years in prison; however, the sentence was suspended. In December 2011, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ordered Gao to serve that three-year sentence after he was accused of allegedly violating the terms of his suspended sentence. Up until his most recent disappearance, authorities had placed Gao under home confinement following his release from prison in August 2014.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA, Ret.) advocated for Gao as part of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's Defending Freedoms Project. 

Sources: