Statement by European Friends of Falun Gong on Kidnapping of Attorney Gao Zhisheng

We are here today to express our deep concern at the arrest of the Chinese human rights lawyer Mr Gao Zhisheng by the Chinese authorities on August 15th. We strongly urge China to release him immediately and to allow him to continue his career as a human rights lawyer.

Gao Zhisheng was kidnapped by plainclothes policemen while visiting his critically ill brother-in-law at his sister’s home in Shandong province when twelve policemen burst into the home and took him away without any explanation and without providing any legal documentation to support their actions. They also cut off his phone communications with any of his relatives and close friends, which means that no one has heard of his whereabouts or welfare since.

The only explanation his sister has received from the CCP authorities is that Gao had committed a crime but no details were given. Gao had been aware that he was under surveillance for almost a year but had still carried on practising as a lawyer and had bravely written articles condemning the Chinese authorities as ‘the most evil organisation in the history of mankind’ and had also exposed the crimes of Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang to the public.

We would also like to point out that the arrest of Gao Zhisheng is aiming to divert the international attention of the persecution of Falun Gong due to a recent case of Mr Shen Yuan, a pilot who had to seek asylum in US due to the pressure from the CCP. The only thing Mr Yuan has done is to tell people about the truth of persecution of Falun Gong and the evil nature of CCP. This is a serious high profile persecution case that has been revealed to the whole world. The CCP is very scared of this revelation and is twisting the facts. Therefore we strongly condemn CCP’s actions/response to cheat the international society.

This episode is the latest in a long line of activities intended by the Chinese Communist Party to intimidate and crush any resistance to their authority and control over the Chinese people. We condemn it outright and urge the Chinese authorities to release Gao immediately.

European Friends of Falun Gong
26th August 2006