BEIJING — Police stripped Gao Zhisheng bare and pummeled him with handguns in holsters. For two days and nights, they took turns beating him and did things he refused to describe. When all three officers tired, they bound his arms and legs with plastic bags and threw him to the floor until they caught their breath to resume the abuse.
“That degree of cruelty, there’s no way to recount it,” the civil-rights lawyer said, his normally commanding voice quavering. “For 48 hours, my life hung by a thread.”
The beatings were the worst he said he ever endured and the darkest point of 14 months, ending last March, during which Gao was secretly held by Chinese authorities. He described his ordeal to The Associated Press in April but asked that his account not be made public unless he went missing again or made it to “someplace safe.”
Two weeks later, he disappeared again. His family and friends say they have not heard from him since then. Police agencies either declined to comment or said they did not know his whereabouts. The AP decided to publish his account, given the length of his current disappearance.
Gao has been a galvanizing figure in the rights movement, advocating constitutional reform and arguing landmark cases to defend property rights and political and religious dissenters.
Gao’s wife, brother and friends fear for his safety.
