Shanghai Baoshan District Court Planned Hearing of Mr. Luo Jiaolong and Ms. Xia Haizhen, Their Families Protested

Name: Luo Jiaolong, Xia Haizhen
Gender: Male, Female
Age: 37, 39
Address: Shanghai Baoshan District Dahuadi District
Date of Most Recent Arrest: July 2004
Most Recent Place of Detention: Shanghai Women's Prison of Fifth Brigade
Detention City: Shanghai
Persecution Suffered: Brainwashing, forced labour camp, beatings, imprisonment, extortion, physical restraint, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

The Shanghai Baoshan District Court collaborated with the police department and the Procuratorate to schedule a hearing for October 11th, 2012, without the knowledge of Mr. Luo Jiaolong and Ms. Xia Haizhen's families. On October 10th the families learned of the hearing and protested. The hearing was finally cancelled.

The impetus for the hearing originated on April 23rd, 2012, when Mr. Luo and Ms. Xia were arrested in public. Police officers took their house keys and searched their homes for "evidence." The officers found some Shen Yun [a world-class traditional Chinese cultural show] DVDs, and Mr. Luo and Ms. Xia were charged with giving away three of them.

During the first six months, their families received no information about them and did not know anything about the progress of their case. It seemed ludicrous to the family members that possessing Shen Yun DVDs was considered a crime. Shen Yun shows have been presented on five continents, in well over 100 major cities worldwide. Millions of people have seen the show and well known professional artists and critics have praised the high level of performance. In Taiwan the show has been a major attraction. Why is it a crime in China?

The families have hired lawyers to defend the practitioners' rights. The lawyers took the case on October 10th, 2012, and discovered that a hearing was scheduled for the next day. Without the lawyers, the practitioners would have been sentenced in secret. It was through the legal arguments presented by the lawyers that the judge, Xu Minfang, at the Shanghai Baoshan District Court, agreed to cancel the hearing.

The Persecution of Mr. Luo and Ms. Xia

Mr. Luo Jiaolon is from Sichuan Province. He was a graduate student working on his master's degree at Shanghai Jiaotong University. When the persecution of Falun Gong started in July 1999, he was sent to a forced labour camp for a year and a half and was not able to complete his education. He was working at a foreign company when he was arrested on April 23rd, 2012.

Ms. Xia Haizhen, 39, is from Suqian City, Jiangsu Province. When she was young she lost her left eye and was considered disabled. In Shanghai she had a happy family with one son. After she started practising Falun Gong, she followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance very closely and was well liked by her neighbours. After the persecution started she did not give up her practice and was persecuted many times.

Before the Sixteenth People's Congress in 2002, Ms. Xia was at home when the chief of the Political and Legal Committee from the Jingan Branch of the Shanghai Police Department came to ask her to go to his office for “a talk.” She said to him, “What crime have I committed? Do you have a warrant?” He replied that the Huangpu Branch officials wanted to talk to her. She replied, “I did not commit any crime. We can talk here.” Knowing that he could not fool her, he used his cell phone to call the officers waiting outside to come into the house. Many of them came and four of the officers carried her by her arms and legs out through her front door. Ms. Xia shouted, “Come and see how the police are treating innocent citizens!” The chief shouted, “Shut her up!” He grabbed an undergarment and forced it into her mouth. The neighbours, who came out to see, could not believe the brutality of the police officers, especially for a “crime” of not giving up her belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. When Ms. Xia's husband came home, the neighbors said, “We know she is a good woman and she did not commit any crime. When we called the Jingan Branch, they denied having taken her.”

Ms. Xia was taken to the Qingpu Brainwashing Centre (also known as Shanghai School of Legal Education). In the two months that she was there, she was coerced, threatened, pressured, intimidated, etc. but she did not compromise her practice. In a meeting where the officers tried to slander Falun Gong, she pointed out the evil actions of the officers and the brainwashing centre. She said solemnly, “My Teacher is great! Falun Dafa is good! Force cannot change people's minds.” Later, the residential committee in her neighbourhood was able to get her home. She left the brainwashing centre openly and aboveboard.

Before long she disappeared again. She was secretly seized by the police and falsely sentenced to three years in jail at the Fifth Group of the Shanghai Women's Prison. When she insisted on doing the exercises and saying out loud, “Falun Gong is good,” the officers put handcuffs on her and asked criminals, Zhu Qin, Qin Deying, Long Yin, and others to beat her. They also advised her husband to divorce her and he did.

When Ms. Xia was released, she had no home to return to and became a vagrant. In the meantime the staff in the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) wanted to monitor her, and harassed her father, other family members, and relatives.

Police officers directly involved in persecuting Mr. Luo and Ms. Xia:
Yang Yuefei, Wang Weiqun, Yin Xiaoqiang, Zhang Jun, Chen Keyun, and Zhou Chenggang, and Peng Changhua.

Baoshan District Political and Judiciary Committee: +86-21-56691011
Baoshan District 610 Office direct line: +86-21-28950334 or 28950332, 36071625
Fan, Baoshan District 610 Office director: +86- 13002155622
Baoshan District 610 Office Division direct line: +86-21-56691538
Xi, Baoshan District 610 Office Section chief: +86-21-56691538, +86-13918276949 (Mobile)
Li Lifang, Baoshan District 610 Office: +86-21-36070123

Shanghai Public Security Bureau at Baoshan District: +86-21-56608111 ext.30211
Yao Zhirong, police chief: +86-21-56698696
Yang Jie, police chief, Yang Jieli Zhengjing and Li Zhengjing, political commissars
Domestic Security Division: 999 Tieli Road: +86-21-56608111 ext 50334
Chen Haiqing, Domestic Security Division captain: +86-21-28950349, 13816690423 (Mobile), 13761207711

Baoshan Judicial Bureau: +86-21-56110148
Yao Rongmin, president, switchboard: +86-21-56692576

Judges that participated in the persecution:
Xu Minfang, female, in her forties, deputy chief judge, Criminal Division, Baoshan District Court, participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioner Guo Xiaojun: +86-21-56863544, or +86-21- 56604808
Zheng, Zhang Kai and Yang Fengqin, judges: +86-21- 56604808
Shanghai Baoshan District Procuratorate:
Zhang Zhiping, procurator-general: +86-21-56691990

Procuratorate employees that participated in the persecution:
Tan Qimin: +86-21-56691990
Chen Weidong: +86-21-56691990-2305
Lv Jianwei, section chief, Procuratorate Liaison Office at Baoshan District Detention Centre: +86-21- 28959547
Tan Qimin: +86-21-66861828
Xu Miaozhong, Tong Yuefeng, Xiao Zhiqiang

Detention Center at Shanghai Baoshan District: +86-21- 66860902, 66860901, 66860219, 56608111 ext 30736, 30768, 30772
Gu Liang and Wang Cheng, deputy heads: +86-21-28959533
Gu Liang and Wang Cheng, deputy directors
Shen Yingchun, head: +86-21- 28959530