{"id":48447,"date":"2015-07-30T11:36:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T11:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=48447 "},"modified":"2015-07-30T11:36:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T11:36:00","slug":"48447-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=48447","title":{"rendered":"Fears Grow For Gao Yu Amid Huge Political Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>2015-07-29&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2015\/31\/2015730718eabe4-7963-4674-a380-76e28aa22b65.jpeg\" alt=\"2015730718eabe4-7963-4674-a380-76e28aa22b65.jpeg (622&#215;376)\" \/><\/div><div>A file photo of Gao Yu speaking in Hong Kong.<\/div><div>&nbsp;AFP<\/div><div><\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Fears are growing over the health of veteran Chinese journalist Gao Yu, who is serving a seven-year jail term for &#8220;revealing state secrets,&#8221; following a recent medical check-up and amid continuing political pressure on her in prison.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Gao, 71, was sentenced by the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People&#8217;s Court in April to seven years&#8217; imprisonment for &#8220;leaking state secrets overseas,&#8221; but she has repeatedly denied breaking Chinese law, saying that a televised &#8220;confession&#8221; on which the prosecution based its case was obtained under duress.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Gao, whose initial appeal was rejected, has come under increasing pressure from police to fire her lawyer, her defense attorney Mo Shaoping told RFA.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;The police are trying to make Gao Yu change her lawyer, but she has refused point blank,&#8221; Mo said. &#8220;They also want her not to plead not guilty at the second appeal, but to plead mitigating circumstances to achieve a sentence reduction.&#8221;<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;Gao Yu&#8217;s response was that they could say that directly to her attorney, but that she respects the professional opinion of her lawyer.&#8221;<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Freelance journalist Su Yutong, who has followed Gao&#8217;s case closely, said a recent medical check also revealed an enlarged thyroid gland, and doctors have yet to rule out cancer.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;They have to do a biopsy, and she also has &#8230; [signs] of atherosclerosis,&#8221; Su said. &#8220;Her life could be in danger at any time.&#8221;<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Lawyers, relatives pressured<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Everyone connected to Gao is also under huge political pressure, amid a nationwide clampdown on human rights lawyers and their associates, Su said.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;Her lawyers and her relatives are all under pressure to keep quiet &#8230; I felt I had to stay in touch with international organizations and overseas governments,&#8221; she said.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;This is a terrible situation.&#8221;<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Meanwhile, online activists who launched a campaign in support of detained freedom of speech advocate Wu Gan, known by his online nickname &#8220;The Butcher,&#8221; said some of their number have been called in for questioning by police.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>More than 10 activists in the central city of Wuhan who wore T-shirts in support of Wu said they were called in by police, including activist Wu Xinfa.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;I told them that I hadn&#8217;t broken the law, and how could a bunch of people getting together wearing T-shirts and taking photos break the law.&#8221; Wu Xinfa said.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;I think the authorities are a bit too jittery.&#8221;<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>He said police had wanted to know who had made the T-shirts, and who had organized the activity.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;They didn&#8217;t say it was against the law; just that it was wrong,&#8221; Wu Xinfa said.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;They said some people had posted it online. But if I put it online, why does it matter? It&#8217;s not harmful to anyone,&#8221; he added.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div><\/div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/fears-07292015110743.html\"><div><\/div><div>For detail please visit here<\/div><\/a><div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;Gao, 71, was sentenced by the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People&#39;s Court in April to seven years&#39; imprisonment for &quot;leaking state secrets overseas,&amp;#8221; but she has repeatedly denied breaking Chinese law, saying that a televised &quot;confession&quot; on which the prosecution based its case was obtained under duress.&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}