As the world’s media focuses on the opening night of the Olympic Games in Beijing, somewhere in a fetid torture hole lies one of China’s most heroic lawyers.
Human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, famous for standing up for the likes of the poor, AIDS victims of bad blood, petitioners and Falun Gong, was ‘disappeared’ last year after sending a letter to the US Congress about human rights in China.
No one knew where Lawyer Gao was but all knew he had been taken by the Public Security Bureau (police).
Now reports have surfaced that Lawyer Gao has suffered “unimaginable” torture.
According to independent radio station Sound of Hope, an inside source contacted the radio broadcaster, saying Lawyer Gao had been taken by secret police to a secret location when he disappeared last November. The move was designed to silence him and during the two months there, he was stripped naked and attacked with electric batons until he passed out. The source said that Gao did not compromise.
In a recorded telephone conversation the source said that one of the most despicable methods they used was to force Gao to take medication before stripping him and instructing a woman to lie down beside him. This was videotaped and photographed and used as blackmail to threaten Gao’s reputation.
The source said it was a traumatic and unbearable experience for Gao Zhisheng.
According to the source Lawyer Gao was being detained in a dark cell 24 hours a day, to the extent he did not know whether it was day or night.
The police humiliated him endlessly. When Gao lost consciousness after severe beatings the police would urinate on his head.
The authorities told Gao it would be a ‘nice treat’ for Gao if he were to be sentenced to prison, making the point they did not intend to sentence him. They wanted to torture him to a point that he would prefer death.
Meanwhile the authorities continue to torture Gao’s family members. The source said that Geng He, Gao Zhisheng’s wife and children had also been detained although to what extent, the source did not say,.
At the end of the conversation the inside source told the SOH reporter that Gao’s family has been transferred to an area in Hebei Province.
