Ms. Tian Xiaoping Wrongfully Sentenced to 14 Years in Heilongjiang Province

Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Tian Xiaoping, 51, lives in the No. 9 Group of the No. 1 Committee on Minzhu Street in Shuangcheng City. She was one of the victims in the “big arrest” in Shuangcheng that occurred on November 13th, 2011. She and four other practitioners were sentenced to 14 years in prison. Two others were sentenced to 13 and 11 years, respectively. The attorney was astounded when the court ignored the prosecutor's recommendation of three to five-year sentences.

Falun Gong practitioners work very hard to follow Truth-Compassion-Forbearance in their lives. They should not be detained at all, nor should they be sentenced.

Brutal Arrest

In the morning on November 13th, 2011, Ms. Tian and 40 other Falun Gong practitioners went to the home of practitioner Qin Yueming in a residential building in Shuangcheng City Urban Construction Bureau (Qin Yueming had been persecuted to death) to hear his wife and daughter talk about the hardships they went through in filing their legal complaint. A little after noon, they were ready to leave. As they opened the door, over 100 police officers rushed in and sprayed tear gas. They also used electric batons, shocking the struggling practitioners. Two policemen carried each practitioner outside. Most of them did not get a chance to put on their shoes and were dragged to waiting police cars.

Ms. Tian's head was injured in the melee, and her clothes were in tatters. Even after ten days, her eyes and the eyes of many others were still red and swollen due to the tear gas. The police took them to Shuangcheng City Patrol and interrogated them individually using force. That lasted until midnight, when some practitioners were taken to the No. 2 Detention Centre in Harbin. Several were taken to Shuangcheng Detention Centre. It was learned later that those who participated in the arrests included over 20 specialty police officers from the Public Security Bureau, the No. 26 department of the provincial Public Security, the No. 5 department of the Municipal Public Security Bureau, and many from the National Security Team of Shuangcheng City.

Interrogation, Torture, and Deception

Beginning on November 26th, Ms. Tian Xiaoping suffered unimaginable torture. In the No. 2 Detention Centre of Harbin City, in the special trial room on the fourth floor of the visiting building, Yao Shoujun, Lu Jun and one other person from Harbin City Police Station (each time Lu Jun was there) tied Ms. Tian to a chair with her arms behind the back. They shined a spotlight on her and interrogated her, asking what role she played in Falun Gong. The interrogation started at 11 a.m. and lasted until the instructor on duty finished dinner. They tortured her for two hours at a time. Lu Jun kicked her knees and ordered her to answer them. Ms. Tian's lips were cracking due to the high heat from the spotlight. In order to cover up what they had done, the police forced her to eat oranges and threatened to beat her if she did not eat them. Seeing that she could not take it any longer, they let her down. Her arms turned black and the colour faded only after many days.

During the interrogation, officers Yao Shoujun and Lu Jun used deception, repeatedly telling her, “Others have already talked. You are the only one who is not cooperating. Do not insist on not saying anything! If you do not believe us, we can bring in Jiang Xiaoyan (another practitioner arrested at the same time) and others so you can hear what they have told us.” When Ms. Tian asked them to bring Jiang Xiaoyan, they ignored her. Due to the brutal torture and with an unclear mind, Tian Xiaoping unwillingly signed the paperwork prepared by the police. Later in the meeting with the public prosecutor, she told the prosecutor all the facts and made a complaint. The prosecutor made a record of what she reported and said he would investigate what had happened during the interrogation. But there was no follow-up. Moreover, during the trial, they concealed the fact that Ms. Tian had been tortured during interrogation.

Prosecution

After the police were successful coercing a confession, they arrested Ms. Tian Xiaoping and six other people in Shuangcheng and then sent their cases to Shuangcheng Court.

On April 24th, 2012, family members and friends hired four attorneys for Ms. Tian and the six other practitioners. The attorneys went to Shuangcheng Court and asked to take a look at their case files. Hu Yelin, the vice-president of the court of Shuangcheng and also in charge of these cases, made it difficult for the attorneys to secure copies of the attorney's letter, the legal certificate, and the letter of trust, then called each attorney's office to confirm their identities. The attorneys went to talk to Geng Yu, the dean of Shuangcheng Court in charge of monitoring cases. Geng Yu said they were following orders from their superiors. The attorneys then went to talk to Zhao Min, the vice president of the criminal department. Zhao Min said he did not know much about that case. Later the bailiff even drove the attorneys away. The attorneys insisted on waiting for two more hours. Around noontime, they had to leave and had to wait to go there again in the afternoon. In the afternoon, the attorneys went to the courthouse again. Hu Yelin, who had double checked the attorneys' identities, only allowed them to look at the case materials and would not allow them to make any copies. Several attorneys talked to the president of Shuangcheng Court for a long time and still did not receive permission to get copies of their cases.

The Trial

Ms. Tian Xiaoping and six other Falun Gong practitioners were put on trial at 9 a.m. on May 28th. Before the trial, the court suddenly notified their families that only one person from each family would be allowed to attend the hearing. Moreover there would be strict searches before entering the courtroom—even shoes and bras would be searched. Before the start of the trial, Ms. Tian and the six other practitioners asked that all Chinese Communist Party (CCP)vmembers exit the courtroom. Not long after the hearing resumed, the police forcibly took Jiang Xiaoyan's younger sister out of the courtroom.

Ms. Tian and her defence counsel called for the prosecutor to present the original material and original evidence to the court, but the court refused to present any evidence. Although the court claimed that they had a list of all withheld inventory, Ms. Tian did not see that list at the hearing. The investigator also did not have her sign such a list. When Ms. Tian's defence attorney, Guo, raised this issue, the prosecutor and the court responded with silence and did not pursue the line of questioning. The judge accused Ms. Tian and the other practitioners of using a cult organisation to undermine law enforcement. The judges only allowed the practitioners to answer “yes” or “no.” Otherwise they would stop the practitioners, saying, “It has nothing to do with the case.” Tian Xiaoping and the others denied all the charges against them.

The lawyers defended their clients' innocence. The judge pounded his gavel to prevent them from reading the pleas of innocence. When the practitioners defended themselves, the judge stopped them, repeating, “That has nothing to do with this case.” Because the two lawyers told everyone in the courtroom that the practitioners had been brutally tortured and also explained the truth about Falun Gong, the judge not only refused their request to summon those who had conducted the interrogations using torture to appear for questioning, but also constantly interrupted the defence attorney. Finally they ordered the courthouse police to remove the defence attorneys, Zhang Chuanli and Wang Quanzhang, from the courtroom. They also took away the attorney's personal laptop.

The hearing lasted a solid eight hours with no breaks. The 63-year-old attorney that Ms. Tian Xiaoping's family had hired has diabetes. He has to take medicine to maintain his blood sugar level. However, Shuangcheng Court even refused to allow Attorney Guo to eat anything.

Many police cars and private cars were parked up and down the streets and alleys near the courthouse. Police and plainclothes officers monitored the area very closely. The big buses parked near the courthouse had no licence plates. Several hundred village officials from 24 villages throughout the entire city were scattered around the courthouse, looking for practitioners from their own villages. Under orders from their superiors, they had to pick up practitioners from their own villages if they saw them. Otherwise the police would take them away.

Heavy sentences

Finally, the public prosecutor suggested that the defendants be given heavy sentences of three to five years. The practitioners did not accept the decision. A few days after the hearing, the court handed down its official decision: Tian Xiaoping and four others were sentenced to 14 years, one to 13 years, and another to 11 years, ignoring the prosecutor's recommendation. The lawyers were appalled at that this travesty of justice.

The lawyers first confirmed that it was incorrect to judge this case using Criminal Law No. 300, which lists 14 cults identified by the Ministry of Public Security, none of them being Falun Gong. The existence of certain government documents and verbal directives are not laws and cannot be the legal basis for a decision. The claim that Ms. Tian Xiaoping committed the crime of undermining law enforcement is groundless. Her conduct was not criminal. Visiting other practitioners does not cause any social harm. People who pursue Truth-Compassion-Forbearance deserve the protection and respect of the law. The prosecutor's only evidence was a “confession” obtained by torturing Ms. Tian. Both she and her attorney informed the prosecutor of this fact before the hearing, and they sued those who tortured her. The prosecutor, however, suggested that the court ignore how the evidence was obtained. Ms. Tian is innocent of any crime of which she was accused.

The persecution continues, those responsible cannot escape justice

Tian Xiaoping and her family are determined not to accept this unjust sentence. They have continued to retain a lawyer to protest the sentence and charge the suspects who tortured her. However, the public security system has already sent Ms. Tian to a women's prison. No organisation or agency will handle either her own complaint letter or her attorney's legal complaint. None of their letters mailed out have received a response. A good person is in prison, while those who are truly guilty of committing crimes are still at large and continue to persecute good people.

Appendix

A list of the police officers who participated in arresting, interrogating, and sentencing Ms. Tian Xiaoping:

1. From the branch office of Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Bureau: Liu Weidong, Yao Renku, Sun Yigang, Xu Jiaqi, Bu Qijun, Liu Weiguo, Lin Zhiyong, Mou Chunpu, Li Yongqiang, Zou Ziwei, Zheng Jun, Yu Ze, Liu Peimin, Sun Yusheng (the director of the direct branch office), and others

2. From the No. 26 Department of Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Bureau: Guo Yongsheng and Cui Hongbin

3. From Harbin Police Station: Yang Danpei, Liu Weiguo, Zhou Zhijun, Bai Wenjie, Zhang Qinglei, Liu Peimin, Yao Shoujin, Lu Jun, Yang Bo, Ren Ruichen (the director), and others

4. From Shuangcheng City Police Station in Heilongjiang Province: Xiao Jitian (the director of Wujia Police Station), Wang Yubiao (the assistant director of Wujia Police Station), Yang Rui, Liu Guochen, Sun Shiyou, Zhang Guodong, Ao Hongwei, Xu Xingzhi, Liu Weiguo, Lin Zhiyong, Gao Xiang, Liu Guozhu, Li Zhaochun, Sun Baofeng, Jia Congfu, Qin Bo, Chen Zhangxi, Liu Liaoman, Jia Zhaobao, Wang Junling (the director of this police station), and others

5. Six people from the Procuratorate of Shuangcheng City: Prosecutors Zhang Zhenting, Zou Qingji, Guan Zhe, and Su Yangao. Those responsible for the approval of arrest: Attorney General Han Fenghua, Attorney Wang Jingxia, and others

6. Six people from Shuangcheng City Court: Presiding Judge Hu Yelin, Judge Zheng He and Zhang Kaijun, Clerk Xu Jing, Xia Yuanxiang (in charge of filing for approval), Dean of the court Shi Shantai, and others

Related articles:

“Attorneys for Falun Gong Practitioners Defend Their Clients Despite Interference by Shuangcheng Court”

http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/6/20/134052.html

“An Amazing Scene in Shuangcheng: Practitioners on Trial Request that Party Members be Dismissed from Court Proceedings”

http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/8/2/134747.html

“Report on the Illegal Trial of Six Practitioners in Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province”

http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2012/8/11/134887.html