At Risk: Prominent Lawyer detained and tortured in China

 I got this from Amnesty International:

http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1770&ea.campaign.id=17499&ea.url.id=116525&ea.campaigner.email=4PH318B4QP8bTUURO9nMPBFFMe9grgD0&ea_broadcast_target_id=0


Being a human rights activist is dangerous in China. You risk arrest, imprisonment, torture, and even execution.
You can be a part of a massive effort by Amnesty International to free a prominent lawyer who has been wrongfully detained in China. Take action now
In 2006, Gao Zhisheng, one of China's most respected human rights lawyers, was sentenced to three years imprisonment for standing up for his people's rights. Gao was jailed and experienced repeated, brutal acts of torture. No one, not even his family, was allowed to see him.
Four years later, after authorities were under pressure to disclose information about him, Gao was temporarily released and appeared in a media interview. He described the torture he had been through saying that he was beaten to within an inch of life. Gao was last seen a month after the interview.
In 2011, the Chinese government announced that Gao had been sent back to prison. He is currently being held in a prison in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, in northwest China.
Amnesty International is demanding that Chinese authorities immediately free Gao Zhisheng. 

Please be a part of our global campaign to free Gao:

1. Sign our appeal now 
Sign our eappeal urging the immediate release of Gao Zhisheng.

2. Write a letter for Gao on Human Rights Day
Amnesty supporters around the world will be writing for Gao and others on December 10th, International Human Rights Day. You can write hand-written a letter to Premier Wen Jiabao or write a letter of solidarity and hope directly to Gao.

Sign-up to Write for Rights | See Gao's letter-writing action

Amnesty is campaigning to protect many human rights defenders who have been targeted and detained by authorities in China. Gao, who had been named "one of the nation's top 10 lawyers" in 2001 for his pro bono work on behalf of human rights activists, was originally detained for the vaguely-defined offense of "inciting subversion", following work to protect religious freedom in China.
Your action today and on December 10th on behalf of Gao will let China know that the world cares about activists like Gao and the valuable human rights work that they do.

No one deserves to be detained and put through unimaginable acts of torture for courageously defending the basic rights of others.  
Thank you for taking action for Gao Zhisheng. Sign our appeal and add a comment here.
Sincerely,

Alex Neve
Secretary General
Amnesty International Canada

P.S. If you have not already signed up to Write for Rights, I urge you to sign up now. We've shown that the massive global attention we can bring on Human Rights Day can get results for people like Gao. Last year, over a million letters were written on and around December 10th in over 80 countries around the world, and we achieved positive results in half of the cases featured the year prior. And we here time and time again that letters of solidarity help give hope to those detained in horrible prison conditions. Plan to join us, and get warmed up for Write for Rights by signing an appeal on behalf of Gao today.