A Letter of Appeal for Zhou Mofang from His Wife

To the People's Procurator of Yunnan Province:

My name is Mei Bilin; I am a teacher at the Forestry Technical College in Yunnan Province (formerly the Yunnan Forestry School). My husband Zhou Mofang is a Falun Dafa practitioner. On October 30 2002, he was abducted by plainclothes police officers from Guandu District. Later he was secretly sentenced to five years in jail, and he is now detained at the Yunnan Province No. 1 Prison.

Zhou Mofang is 52 years old. He graduated from the Chengdu Physical Education and Sports Institute in 1977, and he has been a teacher at the Yunnan Forestry School. He is an open-minded and forthright person, well educated in martial arts and Qigong. But before he practised Falun Gong, he was an alcoholic. He would get drunk once or twice every two or three days, and he would beat our child and me while he was drunk. Since I am physically weak and frequently get sick, life with a drunken husband was a nightmare for my child and me.

In 1994, right at the time I decided to divorce him, he started practising Falun Gong. He told me that he practised many different kinds of Qigong and found that Falun Gong was unusual. To my surprise, his belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance quickly changed him. It was a real miracle. He gave up smoking and drinking and became kind-mannered. He showed much more concern for our child and me, and he began to have a harmonious relationship with his colleagues. During the 20 years of our marriage, he never cared about house chores, but after he started to practise Falun Gong, he called himself a house-husband and started cooking for me. The first time I ate the food he cooked for us, I said with happiness: "What a day, the sun rises from the west!" He replied with smile: "It's because of the goodness of Falun Dafa. Teacher told us to be good persons in any situation."

At his work place, he no longer vied for personal benefits in crucial issues such as apartment allocation or promotions. He applied for the senior professional title for three consecutive years without success, each time just short of one vote, but he never complained or argued with his supervisors. That would be impossible if he had not practised Falun Gong. In May 2001, he was presented with a sportsmanship award in the National ping pong Competition of the Forestry System. Some of his colleagues said: "Zhou Mofang really changed for the better after he began practising Falun Gong." Actually, my family was not the only one saved by Falun Dafa. Millions of Falun Gong practitioners have benefitted through the practice. They feel they are reborn after practising Falun Gong. Falun Dafa is so powerful and has brought much beauty to society.

But on July 20, 1999, the cruel persecution of Falun Gong started. On one side, all of the state-run media including TV, radio, and newspapers started to spread lies and defame Falun Gong. On the other side, they started monitoring, threatening, and arresting Falun Gong practitioners. Using high pressure and the policy of implication (1), Jiang Zemin's regime applied pressure to Falun Gong practitioners' employers, schools, and families, and they instigated the masses to hate Falun Gong practitioners...

On the afternoon of December 22, 1999, my husband and I were at a friend's home. Suddenly four plain-clothes police officers came in. They abducted Zhou Mofang to the Police Department of Kunming City to "verify" an issue. But actually he was sent to a forced labour camp for a year. He got the "notice of sentence" three months after he had been in the labour camp. We, his family members, did not get any message about him from the authorities.

At 7:40 am on October 30, 2002, which was the period before the opening of the16th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, seven or eight plain-clothes police officers broke into my home and arrested my husband and me. When I asked the reason, they said, "You go ask our superior." During the arrest process, they did not follow any legal procedures and even took about 3,000 yuan (2) of our cash. Eight months after the arrest, I learned that my husband, Zhou Mofang, was secretly sentenced to 5 years in jail and secretly sent to the Yunnan Province's No. 1 Prison. During the whole process, we family members did not get any information about my husband or any legal events.

We are very worried about his situation. Even though he was a strong and healthy person, his whole body is now swollen and he is suffering from hypertension due to his imprisonment. It has lasted over one year and shows no sign of recovery. Once, he fainted and fell to the ground, breaking three of his ribs and leaving him unable to walk with ease. I asked if he could be bailed out for medical treatment, but the jail authorities said he must first promise to give up Falun Gong.

Falun Gong practitioners are good people who believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. Is it a crime for one to strive to be a good person? Do they want to reform a good person into a bad person, so that I can have a bad-tempered drunken husband again? Isn't that inhumane? This is not just physical torture; it's the destruction of basic human conscience and good values.

Xiao Yang, the Head of the People's Supreme Court, pointed out on June 18, 2004: "It's an important rule in the criminal law that those who commit crimes should be sentenced, and those who are innocent should be released. If the law did not define a certain behaviour a crime, then punishment would not be made." President Hu Jintao advocates that: "Take people as the most important, pay attention to people's lives." Officers of law enforcement organizations, it's your duty to redress injustices! Here I appeal to all of you for fair redress and judgment.

I hereby request the following considerations:

1. Zhou Mofang is sick. Please allow us to bail him out for medical treatment.
2. Redress Zhou Mofang's case by following legal procedures.
3. Right the illegal behaviour of relevant law-enforcement officers. Release Zhou Mofang and other detained Falun Gong practitioners.
4. Copies of this appeal have been sent to the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of Yunnan Province, the Yunnan Provincial Government, the Political Consultative Committee, the Jail Bureau, the Forestry Bureau, the Yunnan Province Forestry Technical College, etc.

Appellant: Mei Bilin

July 19, 2004

Notes:

1. Policy of implication -- In ancient Chinese feudal society, there was an "implication law," which meant that if one person violated the law, all of his family members and friends would be punished. The punishment ranged from exile to the execution of entire families.

2. Yuan -- Chinese currency; the average monthly salary of a Chinese urban worker is about 500 yuan.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/8/12/81593.html