A religious-freedom watchdog group says relatives of a jailed Chinese human-rights lawyer visited him last week.

ChinaAid says it learned from the wife of Gao Zhisheng that her father and brother-in-law visited him for a half-hour on Saturday at a prison in a remote part of the western Xinjiang region. It was the first time the family had seen or heard of him since April 2010.

Gao's wife, Geng He, says her husband looked well during the weekend visit, which ChinaAid says was conducted under “the watchful eye” of prison officials and the Public Security Bureau. The family was instructed not to discuss the visit with anyone in the outside world.

Gao Zhisheng was sentenced to three years in prison in 2006 for inciting subversion of state power. He was given five-years probation, but ChinaAid says he has disappeared in police custody several times since then.

He has been a outspoken critic of the Chinese government, and worked for the rights of some of China's most vulnerable people, including persecuted Christians and miners working in unsafe conditions.

Gao's wife and two children left for the United States in early 2009.