The Persecution of Mr. Li Shangshi, Former Manager of the Liaoning Panjin Forest Products Company, Reveals the Injustice of the Legal Process under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

59-year-old Falun Dafa practitioner Mr. Li Shangshi was a college-educated manager at the Panjin Forest Products Company in Liaoning Province. Mr. Li was arrested on two occasions for practising Falun Gong. The first time, he was sentenced to prison for three years, and served his sentence from September 24th, 1999 to March 27th, 2003. On April 20th, 2004, Mr. Li was again sentenced, this time to fourteen years in prison. He was incarcerated in the Fourth Division at Qingtaizi Prison in Fushun, Liaoning Province.

Li Shangshi was forced into homelessness after his first detention. On April 20th, 2004, while he rode his bicycle along the Liao River Bridge, two police officers suddenly sprang from hiding and arrested him. Mr. Li shouted, "Falun Dafa is good!" The officers covered his mouth and forced him into a waiting jeep. Mr. Li was taken to the Shuantaizi Police Station, where he was dragged to the second floor and kicked in the face. Officer Wang Fangxiao, one of the policemen who arrested Mr. Li, lied by saying, "We were ordered by the provincial office to grab some information." Then he dragged Mr. Li back to the jeep and took him to the Panjin Detention Centre. Detention centre personnel required legal documents for Mr. Li, but Officer Wang Fanxiao told them, "We'll take care of it later." The detention officer made no further objection, and Li Shangshi was detained in a small room. A detention officer named Zhang asked, "How can we hold him without the necessary legal documents?"

Three days later Lian Jie and another young man from the National Security Department came to interrogate Mr. Li in preparation for the unjust trial. Initially they feigned kindness and understanding, but when Mr. Li refused to cooperate with them they showed their true colours. They grabbed his hair and punched him in the face, then hit his chest, causing Mr. Li to fall to the floor. Mr. Li shouted and Lian Jie stopped. The next day Li Guohua and another officer from the city police came for another round of interrogation. Mr. Li said only one sentence while they were there. He told them, "The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] never uses legal methods to deal with Falun Gong cases, so I refuse to answer any of your questions." He gave them the same statement in writing for their records. After that the police gave up on trying to force a confession from Mr. Li, and instead fabricated evidence against him, which they presented to the Xinglongtai District Court.

InInI September Xinglongtai District Court was ready to try Li Shangshi. They assigned a man and a woman to defend him. Mr. Li asked them, "Do you intend to have me plead guilty or not guilty?" The female lawyer said, "Of course you'll plead guilty." Mr. Li replied, "The trial has already begun, but they haven't even conducted an investigation, and have no evidence against me. How can you assume that I'm guilty?" She said, "The government has made the practice of Falun Gong illegal, so you must be guilty."

From that statement alone the injustice of the legal process is fully displayed. The CCP wants to persecute people, and they don't bother with the rules of evidence to do it. The CCP's laws are solely for the protection of the party, and are merely tools used to persecute people. Even the defence lawyers are pawns of the CCP. In order to deceive the people, courts of law conduct sham trials.

The next day, Li Shangshi refused to be represented by the lawyers whom the court had assigned. At the arraignment, Inspector Pei Guangyan gave false testimony to justify the so-called legal procedure. Later Judge Ma Li, who has accepted bribes and is an active participant in the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong, began the trial against Mr. Li Shangshi. Mr. Li exposed and denied all of their lies. Ma Li realised that Li Shangshi wasn't going to cooperate with the sham in any way. She ordered the bailiff to remove his chair so he'd have to stand, but Mr. Li just sat in a different chair, and the bailiffs finally returned the chair. Mr. Li continued to speak out for justice, so Ma Li rushed to deliver her verdict. She said that Mr. Meng Jian (another Dafa practitioner) had been sentenced to thirteen years, and since Mr. Li was Meng Jian's "boss," he should receive an even longer sentence. Then she declared the trial complete. The next day she delivered a guilty verdict against Mr. Li Shangshi and sentenced him to fourteen years in prison.

The actions of the police and the legal professionals clearly illustrate the CCP's methodology. Falun Gong is not a membership organisation and has no leader, which they all know very well. Mr. Meng Jian was arrested in May 2003. Though both Mr. Li and Mr. Meng are Falun Gong practitioners, they had no contact with each other. They were simply practitioners who lived in the same town. Mr. Li Shangshi was a local coordinator, and the court used that as an excuse to prosecute him as the leader of an "illegal organisation." This is a common "legal" ploy used to persecute Falun Gong practitioners. Perhaps a person unfamiliar with the persecution might ask, "Can this be true?" But that's exactly what happened at Mr. Li Shangshi's trial. They didn't bother to make a public announcement of the trial or notify Mr. Li's family, they only let Xinglongtai District National Security officers, including Zhang Runqiu and a few other police officers attend the show trial. It was only after Li Shangshi was sent to prison that his family was informed of his whereabouts.

Mr. Li Shangshi refused to cooperate with his persecutors, and he refused to wear a prison uniform or allow his head to be shaved. Every day while the prisoners sat on a bench or when the authorities came to inspect the division Mr. Li stood apart from the rest. He also refused to memorise and recite the prison rules, pose for a prison photograph or let the perpetrators take his fingerprint. For five months he conducted a hunger strike in protest, and he practised the Falun Gong exercises every morning.

On September 28th, 2004, Mr. Li Shangshi and two other practitioners from Huludao were taken away to the Number Two Jail in Wushun. Currently there are still ten practitioners at Qingtaizi Prison in Fushun. Dafa practitioner Wang Hongwei from Dalian, who was temporarily "transformed¹," and the others continue to practise Falun Dafa. Some of the detention officers and prisoners have come to understand Falun Dafa and treat the practitioners well. They've come to recognise the true nature of the CCP, and they know how the party has slandered Falun Gong. Only a few officers continue to actively participate in persecuting practitioners. The practitioners' righteous thoughts are very strong. As the practitioners have clarified the truth, new practitioners have come to cultivate. One officer found out about it and tried to force a new practitioner to tell him where he'd found Teacher Li's [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa] articles, but the practitioner refused to tell him. Finally the officer gave up and stopped threatening him.

Note

1. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/2/4/148227.html