Liaoning Province Falun Dafa Practitioner Ms. Gao Manli Sentenced to Eight Years Imprisonment

Today I cried when I learned from Minghui.net [Chinese version of Clearwisdom.net] that Dafa practitioner Gao Manli was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in July 2003. Gao Manli is now about 50 years old, but she looks very young, and is a lively and open-minded person. She is a retired employee of Liaoning Chemical Factory, where she used to be an accountant, and she was an excellent worker. She, her husband Zhou Zhigang, and their son Zhou Kuang lived a happy life. Many people know that she practises Falun Gong and is a good person.

On July 20, 1999 Jiang Zemin started the persecution of Falun Gong. In order to say a few words about the truth, she embarked on the path to Beijing, on foot, to appeal to the government. However, since appealing to the government is denied, what was waiting for her was a bunch of policemen. Manli was forcefully sent back to her local police station for illegal detention. In July 2000 she was sent to Liaoyang City Forced Labour Camp (namely, Shizuizi), where she was forced to do hard labour for 18 to 20 hours every day. In order to visit her, her husband often rode a bicycle to the Camp and waited by its entrance, with the hope that he could see her, however, no matter how hard Zhou begged, jail guards including Sun Aiqin did not allow them to see each other, the reason is because Gao is steadfast in her belief in Falun Gong.

In November 2001 the "610 Office" [an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.] of Liaoning Province Chemical Factory head Li Yumei, officers from the police station, and residential area committee staff came to Gao's home many times to harass her. They attempted to arrest Gao, but weren't able to due to her firm resistance. In December 2001, local police made her neighbour trick her son into opening the door. At that time, her 14-year-old son was alone at home, and they ransacked her home like bandits. After Gao's husband finished work and came home, the police forcibly arrested him, and they threatened Gao's relatives, seeking information on her whereabouts, claiming they would not release her husband. Under pressure from different sources, Zhou was released 15 days after he was illegally detained. Zhou has been tremendously mentally wounded. A happy family was broken up. After her release Gao took her son and started wandering about and going from place to place to avoid further persecution.

Police from Liaohua didn't stop pursuing Gao. They posted a reward and listed her as wanted, they went to her brother's home in Tiefa City to search, and harassed her relatives many times. In those days when she was wandering about, she missed her husband and her other family members so much

It was about April 2003 that she was reported by someone when she was reading a Falun Dafa book on the train going from Heilongjiang Province to Dalian City. She was then arrested (she was still listed as wanted). In November, she was sentenced to eight years imprisonment by the Liaohua Court.

I would hereby like to mention another thing. In September 2002, Liaohua City Dafa practitioner Yu Guilan was abducted, then sent to a hospital to receive emergency treatment. Her son Bai Ji, 17, asked if he could go to visit his mother, however, Liaohua police even handcuffed him to heating pipes for the entire night. Yu was divorced when her son was 2 or 3 years old, and she has brought him up on her own, as her dependant. Liaohua police even put this teenager into detention and threatened him by saying, "If you say that Falun Dafa is good again, tomorrow we'll send you to the detention centre." His mother being detained, and the brutality of the policemen left Bai with wounds in his heart. She was abducted and sent to the notorious Masanjia Forced Labour Camp, leaving this child alone, living a lonely life.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/1/6/64202.html