Calls for Gao release amid reported ill health

Fifteen groups championing human rights and press freedom on Thursday called on Chinese President Xi Jinping to free Gao Yu, 71, who is reported to be suffering from cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.

The campaign groups said Gao was already afflicted with a number of health problems at the time of her detention last year. Her brother, Gao Wei, called for her release in June after a doctor at the detention center found signs of heart artery blockage and abnormal lymph node growth.

"Since Gao Yu's unjust imprisonment, her health has only deteriorated further," said Sophie Richardson, China director of New York-based group Human Rights Watch. "Gao should be released immediately to get the medical care she needs."

Award-winning work

Gao, who has won a number of press freedom awards for her work, which included contributing regular articles to Deutsche Welle, was given a seven-year jail sentence in April, accused of publishing classified information.

Chinese authorities have so far declined to give details of the alleged leak.

In a letter, the activists also called on Xi to release all political prisoners, as well as asking for an independent, international investigation into the deaths of Tibetan monk Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, who died in July while in prison in China, and Chinese activist Cao Shunli, who died in 2014, also while in detention.

tj/sms (AP, dpa)