Update 2018
In November 2017, RFA reported that a brief audio clip was published by The Gao Zhisheng Lawyers’ Group, of Gao talking about the conditions he is being held in. According to the report, Gao has a number of illnesses. For example, his teeth have all fallen out, so he can only eat liquids.
Gao said he is currently locked up in total darkness, in a room where the windows have been blacked out to prevent any natural light from coming in. He said it feels like being confined in an “infinite darkness.”
“I haven’t seen the light of day, nor taken any exercise in eight years,” Gao can be heard saying in the audio recording, saying that his conditions are even worse than during his three-year jail term at Shaya Prison in a remote area of the north western region of Xinjiang.
Gao last re-disappeared from his home in August 2017.