Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office Günter Nooke made the following comments on the detainment of Gao Zhisheng:

”The Chinese Government has communicated that the human rights lawyer and civil rights activist Gao Zhisheng has again been detained for subverting state power.

Gao Zhisheng disappeared without a trace more than a year ago obviously at the hands of the Chinese leadership. I call upon the Chinese Government to release Gao Zhisheng immediately and with him all political prisoners – those of whom we know and the countless prisoners of whom we know nothing.“

Gao Zhisheng is one of China’s leading human rights lawyers. He worked to defend above all persecuted followers of the Falun Gong movement and for those whose land had been seized. For many years he courageously fought human rights violations and stood up for more justice in China.

Both the German Government and the European Union have endeavoured to help him in the past.