Zhao Guifeng, female, detained since April 2001. On December 3, 2002, she was unlawfully sentenced to 15 years in prison by the Chaoyang District Court of Changchun. She has filed an appeal to the Intermediate People's Court of Changchun.
After being illegally detained for one and a half years, on November 10, 2002, Ma Yechi, Liu Yaqian (female), and Li Zhixiu (female) were unlawfully sentenced by the Economic and Technological Development District Court of Changchun. Ma Yechi and Liu Yaqian were given prison terms of fifteen years (the maximum sentence a district court is authorised to hand down), Li Zhixiu was given 12 years. Appeals are now in progress for these cases.
In the majority of cases, the above practitioners were sentenced in secret trials and their families were not notified beforehand. During the trial practitioners were physically restrained by their throat, preventing them from speaking on their own behalf. During the show trial, the prosecutor read some pre-arranged statements, and each trial concluded hurriedly in around 10 minutes.
Although the court did ask the practitioners if they wanted to hire any lawyer, in reality none of the practitioner's families were informed. [In China, lawyers are only allowed to plead guilty for Falun Gong court cases by government order] The court claimed phone calls to practitioners' family members could not get through or were not answered. They were afraid of leakage of information which might cause them embarrassment, like the Nanguan Court incident (a show trial where Dafa practitioners displayed their righteous thoughts in court. According to some police, the director of the Nanguan Court had been fired.
Although the court-appointed lawyers did come, none of them dared to plea not guilty for the practitioners. They were only able to represent the practitioners if they pleaded guilty. Practitioners therefore respectfully refused their representation. Some practitioners had written their own speeches for the trial, but the speeches were confiscated by the 3rd Detention Centre authorities when their bodies were searched. Practitioners were told that the speeches would be handed to the court but in reality they were not.
The following practitioners had been unlawfully sentenced and transferred to the Heizuizi Female Prison:
Zhou Runjun received a 20 years prison sentence. She was sent to the Heizuizi Female Prison after being tortured by the 1st Division of police department to such an extent that she developed serious heart problems.
Song Li received a 6 years prison sentence. A Master Degree Candidate in archaeology, Jilin University, she was unlawfully arrested just before her graduation.
Many Elderly Practitioners Were Kidnapped and Taken to the 3rd Detention Centre During the Sitting Period of the "Two Meetings" (the People's Congress and Political Consulting Meeting).
Recently another group of Dafa practitioners were kidnapped and taken to the 3rd Detention Centre. Mostly of them are women over 50 years of age, and there were quite a few elderly practitioners over 70 years of age. They were taken into the detention centre straight from their homes. Policemen involved said that this round of arrests was "ordered by the state department." No one was to be allowed into Beijing during the "two meetings" period, and if there were any local practitioner being sent back from the Capital, the policemen from the practitioner's district would be stripped of their uniforms immediately. There were about 40-50 newcomers to the detention centre, and the number is still increasing. Some elderly practitioners have spouses who are ill and need to be attended to, some have cancer, some others paralysed. Police arrested people against their own consciences, for the sake of their job and bonuses. Some practitioners started a hunger strike after being sent here. The 3rd Detention Centre did not release them. On the contrary many harsh means were used on them, handcuffs and shackles were used to tie their hands and feet together, causing extreme pain as well as preventing them from being able to look after themselves.
Some guards in the 3rd Detention Centre are very vicious. 25 year-old female guard Huo Yan was "Credited and Rewarded" for her effort in persecuting Dafa practitioners. Practitioners who had long been kept in the centre unlawfully did not regard themselves as offenders of law and had always refused to wear prison clothing. By the end of November 2002, the centre tried to force practitioners to wear uniforms. Almost all practitioners were put in shackles. When the practitioners resisted by going on hunger strike, the guards stuck needles into their fingertips and exposed them to vapour of caustic chemical solutions which causes painful blisters around the nose area. Huo Yan also tortured other detainees in the centre who were non-practitioners, in order to incite hatreds towards Dafa practitioners.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2003/4/3/47599.html
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