Gender: Male
Current Location: Camp Jail, Lahore
Perpetrator: Pakistan
Religion or Belief: Muslim – Ahmadiyya
Reports of Torture: No
Reports of Medical Neglect: No
Date of Detainment: March/31/2021
Current Status: Not Released
Religious Leader: No
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Detainment
Reason for Persecution: Blasphemy (General) Blasphemy (Other)
Nature of Charges: Hate Speech
Mansoor Tahir Ahmad
Extra Bio Info:
Mansoor Tahir Ahmad is detained for alleged blasphemy.
In March 2021, authorities arrested Ahmad after he was accused of making negative comments about a religious program. They charged him with "inciting interfaith hatred" (Sec. 11 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016) and "intending to outrage religious feelings" (Sec. 295-A PPC). Authorities denied his requests for bail.
Additional Name(s): 高智晟
Gender: Male
Perpetrator: China
Ethnic Group: Han
Religion or Belief: Christian – Protestant
Reports of Torture: Yes
Date of Detainment: August/13/2017
Current Status: Unknown
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Disappeared
Reason for Persecution: Human Rights Work for Religious Communities Legal Work for Religious Communities
Nature of Charges: Not Applicable
Gao Zhisheng
Extra Bio Info:
Gao Zhisheng remains forcibly disappeared for his work defending human rights and religious minorities.
On August 13, 2017, Gao, a human rights lawyer, was forcibly disappeared from his home in Jia County, Yulin Municipality, Shaanxi Province. His exact whereabouts and condition are unknown.
Gao has previously served time in prison and been subjected to forced disappearance. He was well known for representing Christians and Falun Gong practitioners and criticizing the state's treatment of them. In August 2006, Gao was forcibly disappeared and then later found guilty of subversion. He was sentenced to three years in prison; however, the sentence was suspended. In December 2011, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ordered Gao to serve that three-year sentence after he was accused of allegedly violating the terms of his suspended sentence. Up until his most recent disappearance, authorities had placed Gao under home confinement following his release from prison in August 2014.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA, Ret.) advocated for Gao as part of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's Defending Freedoms Project.
Publicly Available Information:
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Photo attributed to The Epoch Times (Velká Epocha), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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China’s Political Prisoners: Where’s Gao Zhisheng? U.S. Congress
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USCIRF Tweet February 10, 2022
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"Gao Zhisheng" Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC)
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"Gao Zhisheng" Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
Gender: Female
Current Location: No. 2 Women's Prison, Yunnan
Perpetrator: China
Religion or Belief: Falun Gong
Reports of Torture: No
Reports of Medical Neglect: No
Sentence: 3 Years, 6 Months' Imprisonment
Date of Detainment: May/27/2020
Date of Sentencing: December/9/2020
Current Status: Unknown
Religious Leader: No
Most Recent Type of Abuse: Imprisonment
Reason for Persecution: Discussing Religion & Religious Texts Religious Activity
Nature of Charges: Unknown
Chunmei Wang
Extra Bio Info:
Chunmei Wang was imprisoned for her religious activity.
On May 27, 2020, Kaiyuan City police arrested Wang, a retiree from Kaiyuan City, Yunnan Province who worked at the Honghe Power Supply after she allegedly talked to people about Falun Gong. She was initially held at the Honghezhou Detention Center.
On June 10, 2020, Wang was indicted. Her family was reportedly allowed to hire her a lawyer but was unable to visit her.
On December 9, 2020, Wang was sentenced to three years and six months in prison on unidentified charges.
In late February or early March 2021, Wang was transferred to No. 2 Women's Prison in Yunnan Province.
In May 2021, Wang was reportedly able to talk to her husband very briefly on the phone.
Wang should have been released in November 2023.
Wang has previously served time in prison for her religious activity. In 2014, she was arrested for sharing Falun Gong information and VPN access with street vendors. She spent three years in jail.