Beijing (dpa) – China has allowed relatives to visit leading rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng for the first time since he was imprisoned in a remote western region, his brother and wife said on Wednesday. Gao Zhiyi confirmed that he had visited his brother at the Shaya Prison in the Xinjiang region but he declined to give details. “It's not convenient for me to speak now,” Gao Zhiyi said. “I will speak in a few days.” Gao Zhisheng's exiled wife, Geng He, said Gao Zhiyi and her father, Geng Yundi, saw him for about 30 minutes at the prison on Saturday. “They spoke on the telephone through a glass window,” Geng told US-based Radio Free Asia. “Judging from the way he walked, he was okay. He did not seem to have lost or gained weight,” she told the broadcaster. China imposed a suspended three-year prison sentence on Gao Zhisheng in mid-December, almost five years after he was released on probation. A Beijing court announced that Gao would have to serve his sentence because of unspecified violations of the terms of his probation, which had been scheduled to end the following week. Amnesty International called the court's decision “shocking” and urged China to end its “inhumane treatment” of the lawyer. Gao, 47, had been missing for nearly two years and spent nearly five years under house arrest after he was convicted of subversion in 2006. He had taken on sensitive cases despite threats, violence and imprisonment by authorities under the ruling Communist Party. Geng and the couple's two children made a dramatic escape from close police surveillance and arrived in the United States in January 2009 after traveling overland from China to Thailand. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/6ahdV Tags: China, Gao, Jail, Visit Section: East Asia, Human Rights, Latest News
