Married Couple Sentenced to Forced Labour

Mr. Li Xiaodun and Ms. Li Qiuxiang, husband and wife, are villagers from Pingwang Village, Rongcheng County, Hebei Province. The local police have been constantly harassing them for years with detention, brainwashing attempts and fines, simply because they are Falun Gong practitioners. In late August 2005, she was sentenced to two years of forced labour at the Baiding Forced Labour Camp.

On June 30th 2001, Rongcheng County Public Security Bureau officers led at least ten people in ransacking Mr. Li's home. They confiscated their Falun Dafa books and tapes, and jailed both Mr. and Ms. Li in Roncheng County Detention Centre for fifteen days. Finally, they extorted 450 yuan¹ from them, ostensibly as a charge for their meals while at the detention centre.

After the fifteen days, Mr. Li was then jailed in the brainwashing centre for another three months and seven days, while his wife was detained at Dingxing County Detention Centre for six months. The total amount of illegal financial persecution was 2500 yuan for "meals charges" and an additional 4000-yuan in fines.

About a year later, on July 18th 2002, police officers Ji Heipeng and Zhu Zhanliang led other officers in the arrests of Mr. and Ms. Li and sent the couple to the county brainwashing centre for twenty-three days, where they were each charged 50 yuan per day for food, totalling 2300 yuan.

Almost another year later, on May 15th 2003, the same officers, Ji Heipeng and Zhu Zhanliang, again led fellow officers to Mr. Li's home to take them both to the village police station, where they demanded a large sum of money. Mr. Li couldn't afford to pay the amount demanded, so the couple was forced to leave their home. The police officers subsequently forced their way into the house to search for cash and discovered 25,000 yuan that Mr. Li had borrowed at a high rate of interest, money that was intended to finance a future business venture. The police were just going to walk away with the cash, but because Mr. Li's child insisted on getting a receipt, the police gave him a receipt for "temporary holding." To this day, however, the officers have not returned any of the 25,000 yuan.

As a result of this persecution, Mr. and Ms. Li were forced into homelessness and destitution for over two years. Then they heard the Baoding Public Security Bureau announcement that the practitioners who had left their homes were now welcome to return, after first reporting to the Public Security Bureau. The announcement also said there would be "no brainwashing class, detention, penal court or any other sort of punishment," so they returned home on July 16th 2005.

Little did they know that this so-called amnesty was just a lie that was used to capture them. The County Public Security Bureau promptly arrested them the day after they arrived home. Mr. Li was fined 2000 yuan, and is currently detained in the brainwashing centre. Ms. Li was detained in the county detention centre for thirty days. Then in late August 2005, she was sentenced to two years of forced labour at the Baiding Forced Labour Camp, where she is currently imprisoned without visiting rights.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/8/30/109469.html