Top Chinese Civil Rights Lawyer Tried in Secret: Recordings

Radio Free Asia
12 December 2006

HONG KONG—Chinese authorities in Beijing have secretly tried a top Chinese civil rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, on unspecified subversion charges, but his family hasn't been informed of the verdict, his wife has said.

“I just returned home from lawyer Mo Shaoping’s office,” Geng He told a friend who recorded the conversation and gave it to RFA’s Mandarin service.

“They concluded his trial in secret this morning. The family had not been informed. Nor do we know the two court-appointed attorneys. We’ve never met them. We know nothing,” Geng said in the recording, which was made with her knowledge and consent.

Her telephone appeared to be out of order when RFA Mandarin service reporter Ding Xiao subsequently tried to contact her.

Mo, appointed to represent Gao by Gao’s brother Gao Zhiyi, confirmed in an interview that he had not received prior notice of the trial and wasn’t permitted to attend. He declined further comment.

But a Dec. 12 letter — co-signed with lawyer Ding Xikui, addressed to Gao’s brother and wife, and obtained by RFA — states the family-appointed lawyers learned Monday that Gao had been tried that morning in an “open” hearing by the Beijing Municipal First Intermediate People’s Court.

>> Read the complete article