Focal Point: Whether Gao Zhiyi Will Be Allowed to Visit Gao Zhisheng

By Zhang Min, Anchor, Spiritual Journey, Radio Free Asia
January 7, 2012

Gao and his son

On January 1, 2012, Gao Zhiyi received a notice from the Shaya Jail, which did not mention when the family could visit Gao Zhisheng.

The previous program reported that, on December 16, twenty months after the human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was disappeared, Xinhua News Agency issued a brief English release, saying Gao would be sent back to jail to serve his three year terms due to violation of probation rules. However, since then, there had been no further information on which prison Gao would be put into, and no verdict available to the family, and no notice on when the family could visit him, till January 1, 2012, when Gao Zhiyi, brother of Gao Zhisheng who lives in north Shan’an Xi, received a notice from the Shaya Jail of Xinjiang Uigur Autonomous Region telling him that his brother was jailed there, yet short of mentioning when the family could visit him.

聚焦：高智义能否探视高智晟成焦点

高智晟的妻子和女儿，儿子

RFA张敏
（自由亚洲电台“心灵之旅”访谈节目主持人张敏采访报道2012，01，07）

*高智义1月1日收到沙雅监狱通知书，其中未提及家属何时可探监*

前面节目中报道了，中国维权律师高智晟再次被失踪二十个月后，新华社12月16日发出英文短讯，称高智晟律师违反缓刑规定，已被送回监狱执行原判三年实刑。但是，在当时和之后的两周内，没有关于高智晟在哪个监狱服刑的消息，家人也一直没有看到裁定书，没有得到家人什么时候可以探视的通知。

"Red String": A letter from Gao's wife to Gao

Jan 4, 2012: http://pjmooney.typepad.com/my-blog/2012/01/the-red-string.html

From left: Gao's daughter  Geng Ge, Gao's wife Geng He,
Gao Zhisheng, Gao's son Gao Tianyu.

Human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, held incommunicado by the Chinese authorities for the past 20 months, has been sent back to jail, according to a report on December 16 by the official Xinhua News Agency. What's puzzling is that the court was quoted as saying that the decision was justified because Gao had “seriously violated probation rules” several times. It would have been quite difficult for Gao to have violated the terms of his probation as he has been under police detention for the past 20 months.

Below is a rough translation of a moving letter Geng He, Gao's wife, wrote to him on New Year's Day:

Missing Chinese Lawyer Said to Be in Remote Prison

By EDWARD WONG - The New York Times

Published: January 1, 2012

BEIJING — The brother of a prominent dissident rights lawyer who had been missing for 20 months said Sunday that the lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, was being held in a prison in the remote western region of Xinjiang.

The brother, Gao Zhiyi, told two news agencies that he had been informed that Gao Zhisheng was in a prison in Shaya County. The brother said he had received an official notice on Sunday telling him that Mr. Gao was now back in prison because a court had revoked his probation, and that he would have to serve three more years.

Mr. Gao, a Beijing lawyer known for taking politically delicate cases, was sentenced to three years of probation in 2006 for inciting subversion of the state. The official Xinhua news agency reported last month that his probation had been revoked.