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Gao Yu was released February 1999!
Gao Yu is a journalist and prisoner of conscience serving a six-year prison sentence for disclosing "state secrets". She was originally jailed after the 1989 crackdown, released, and then rearrested in October 1993, two days before she was due to travel to New York to take up a journalism fellowship at Columbia
University. She was held in incommunicado detention for many months. On 10 November 1994, following a series of blatantly unfair judicial proceedings, she was
tried in secret and had no legal representation. She was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for disclosing "important state secrets". Her appeal was rejected in
November 1994 and she was transferred to a prison 80 kilometers from Beijing, where is is still held. Amnesty International regards Gao Yu as a prisoner of conscience and is calling for her immediate and unconditional release. You are encouraged to send appeals for her release to the following addresses. Feel free to copy/edit the enclosed letter.
President of Beijing Municipal High People's Court
SHENG Liangang Yuanzhang
Beijingshi Gaoji Renmin Fayuan
215 Xiheyan
Chongwenqu
Beijingshi 100051
People's Republic of China
Minister of Justice
XIAO Yang Buzhang
Sifabu
Xiaguangli
Beijingshi 100016
People's Republic of China
(fax +86 104677351)
Your Excellency,
My name is ................. I am a member of Amnesty International. I am writing to you, appealing for the release of the 50-year-old journalist Gao Yu who is serving a six-year sentence in Yanging Prison, north of Beijing.
Gao Yu was sentenced for "disclosing important state secrets" in a Hong Kong magazine in early 1993. Her trial was held in camera and she was without legal representation. She was tried twice, in May and June 1994, and had her case returned to the Beijing procuracy for further investigation due to lack of evidence to support charges. She has been adopted by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience.
I am especially worried about Gao Yu's health. She is suffering from angina pectoris and Menière's disease. I have been informed that her family provides her with medicines, but no information exists as to whether she has access to medical attention beyond that. I hope that she will receive all the medical care she requires while she remains in prison. I would be very grateful if you were able to assure me in this respect. I can be reached at the address cited below.
Yours respectfully and sincerely
.......................................
