BEIJING—Security officials forced a high-profile lawyer out of Beijing in an effort to isolate him before he was honored in America for his civil-rights work, a fellow activist said yesterday.

Gao Zhisheng was taken from his Beijing home on June 24 to an unknown location outside the city, his friend and fellow activist Hu Jia said. Mr. Hu said he received a phone call from Mr. Gao on Saturday.

The forced detention was a way for security forces to ease the mounting pressure for the government to help Mr. Gao attend the American Board of Trial Advocates award ceremony in Santa Barbara, Calif., Mr. Hu told the AP.

The group of judges and trial lawyers on Saturday honored Mr. Gao for challenging the Chinese government with cases involving property rights violations, the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and families of workers killed in a coal mine explosion.

Mr. Gao was arrested in August 2006 on subversion charges based on nine articles posted on Web sites abroad, the official Xinhua News Agency reported at the time. He was convicted and later placed under house arrest.

In his phone call, Mr. Gao said he would not be allowed to return to Beijing until after yesterday’s politically sensitive anniversary marking 10 years of Chinese rule in Hong Kong, a proud moment that Beijing would not want marred by negative media attention, Mr. Hu said. Messrs. Gao and Hu, like most dissidents, are under constant surveillance.

In February, an 80-year-old AIDS activist trying to travel to America to receive an award said she was kept under virtual house arrest for about 20 days as authorities tried to stop her from going to Beijing to get her U.S. visa.