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11/25/2024 03:43:54 am

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China Frees Gao Zhisheng From Prison

Gao Zhisheng

(Photo : REUTERS/Stringer (CHINA) CHINA OUT) Chinese human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, in January 2006.

BEIJING, Aug. 7. After serving three years of what was supposed to be a prison sentence of eight years, China has freed one of its most prominent dissidents. Beijing-based human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, 50, was discharged from prison on Thursday morning and is currently remaining in Urumqi to seek dental treatment with his brother. 

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As a high profile human rights lawyer, Mr. Gao was known for defending clients who were religious minorities and activists as well as documenting human rights abuse cases that occurred throughout China. His campaigns promoting religious freedom and humanitarian work have brought him international attention as well as two Nobel Peace Prize nominations. The United States, European Union, and United Nations had repeatedly contacted the Chinese authorities, demanding Mr. Gao's release from prison.

 Mr. Gao has been serving his current eight-year prison sentence since December of 2011 in a far removed desert prison in the western region of Xinjiang. In addition, Mr. Gao has also been in and out of prison since late 2006, when he had first been arrested for subversion. On more than one occasion, Mr. Gao has expressed that he was tortured during the time of his imprisonment. The damage from his current sentence left Mr. Gao with teeth so broken and loose that he was unable to eat solid food.

However, Chinese authorities may seek to carry out Mr. Gao's prison sentence in other forms, such as house arrest. Currently, Mr. Gao is not allowed to make phone calls and had been unable to make contact with his wife, Geng He until later in the day.

Ms. Geng and their two children, aged 11 and 21, left China and sought asylum in the United States in 2009. The rest of Mr. Gao's family remained in China, where each member had been blacklisted by the Chinese government and were forbidden to leave the country.Ms. Geng is expected to be holding a news conference over the matter of her husband's release later today in San Francisco.

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