Ms. Zhang Lianying's Family Trying to Find Lawyer to Sue Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp for Its Crimes Against Humanities

Ms. Zhang Lianying is a Falun Gong practitioner from Chaoyang District, Beijing City. While incarcerated in Tiantanghe Women's Forced Labour Camp in Beijing (also known as Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp), Ms. Zhang Lianying was subjected repeatedly to brutal violence and psychological torment. On March 27th, 2007, Ms. Zhang suffered brutal violence again. This time the violence inflicted severe injuries to her head and body, resulting in a coma. Finally, the camp took her to the hospital for emergency resuscitation. With their daughter in his arms, Zhang's husband Mr. Niu Jinping went to the camp, asking to visit his severely injured wife. Meanwhile, he requested that she be let out on bail for medical treatment. He also asked for an explanation as to why his wife had been subjected to such severe violence and demanded the torturers be brought to trial. The camp denied all of his requests with excuses and even made threats to silence Zhang's husband.

Due to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) suppressive measures against Falun Gong practitioners' lawyers, it is extremely difficult to find an lawyer in China willing to represent Falun Gong practitioners in court for the persecution they have suffered.

Seeking Legal Assistance from an Lawyer

May 13th, 2007

To All Lawyers and Legal Professionals:

Greetings!

We are Ms. Zhang Lianying's family members. While Ms. Zhang was imprisoned in Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp, she was subjected to violence and psychological torture repeatedly. On March 21st, 2007, she again suffered brutal violence. She received beatings to both sides of her head, which resulted in a coma. She was taken to Renhe Hospital in Daxing District, Beijing for emergency treatment. During her imprisonment, the camp deprived her of her right to be out on bail for medical treatment, as well as her right to exchange letters with her family, to talk to her family and to meet her family. Her life is in grave danger.

As Ms. Zhang's closest family, we are desperately looking for professional legal assistance. We know that lawyers' and legal professionals' code of ethics requires them to protect Chinese citizens' legal rights, uphold justice and defend morality. It is their sworn duty to uphold the dignity of true Chinese laws.

We are asking you to accept us as your clients. Please use your sense of justice and professional knowledge and skills to provide the needed and effective legal consultation, opinions and recommendations. Please investigate this case, protect Ms. Zhang's legal rights and pursue justice against people committing crimes against Ms. Zhang.

Yours truly,

Song Xiuying (Ms. Zhang Lianying's mother)
Zhang Lianxi (Ms. Zhang Lianying's younger brother)

Summary of the Complaint

Ms. Zhang Lianying is 46 years old in 2007. She is a CPA and was a mid-level management professional with the Guangda Group in Beijing.

Ms. Zhang Lianying and her baby girl

After Ms. Zhang Lianying began to practise Falun Gong in August 1997, she changed completely for the better. She became physically healthy and her morality improved. She worked hard and rarely complained. She refused to take bribes. Some of her colleagues at the financial department commented, "If only every management staff in the company would practise Falun Gong." After two years of cultivation practice before 1999, her many illnesses gradually disappeared. She rarely took any sick days.

Ms. Zhang followed Falun Gong's teaching. She tried to conduct her speech and behaviour according to its principles Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. She not only became healthy, but also became a better person. Once, the company assigned apartments to its employees. Since Ms. Zhang was management, she was supposed to get an apartment of more than 120 square metres. Yet she gave the bigger apartment to another colleague and continued to live in the old small apartment of about 40 square metres.

After the CCP started to openly persecute Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999, Ms. Zhang wrote an article sharing her cultivation stories. She wrote the following "The world around me appeared to collapse and good was reversed to bad. My superiors suspended me and demanded I turn in all Falun Gong books. I don't understand this. I am the same person, except that I have learned the true meanings and values of life and am trying to become a better person. Yesterday I was highly praised, but today I am condemned. Aren't they reversing the truth?"

Since then, Ms. Zhang was repeatedly imprisoned because she refused to give up practising Falun Gong. On June 4th, 2005, while Ms. Zhang was looking after her baby daughter, a dozen policemen from Xiangheyuan Police Station in Chaoyang District broke into her home and arrested her without any warrant. Eventually, Ms. Zhang was sentenced to Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp. On June 30th, 2005, Ms. Zhang was brutally abused because she refused to stop practising Falun Gong. The beating caused bleeding around her eyes, distortion on her face and many large bruises on her body.

On February 27th, 2006, when Ms. Zhang was imprisoned in the No. 10 Team of Beijing City Prisoners' Dispatch Centre, she was again severely beaten. This time the injury was so severe that she was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. She was in the hospital for more than 50 days. Her face turned dark purple. There were wounds even on the soles of her feet. Her left leg was terribly swollen. She became bedridden as a result of the severe injuries. On April 20th, 2006, Ms. Zhang was transferred to Tiantanghe Women's Forced Labour Camp in Beijing without notifying her family. The dispatch centre and the camp tried to hide the abuse she suffered. They cut off all communication between Ms. Zhang and her family - no letters, phone calls or visits.

With their baby daughter in his arms, Ms. Zhang's husband Mr. Niu Jinping went to many places to find his wife's whereabouts. Finally, he learned that Ms. Zhang had suffered atrocious abuses while imprisoned in the dispatch centre and the camp. Meanwhile, the international society has expressed its concern for Ms. Zhang. Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott of the European Parliament met with Mr. Niu Jinping in person during his stay in Beijing and investigated facts of the persecution against his family.

Ms. Zhang was incarcerated in the "Intensive Training Team" of the camp. According to insider information, this is the place where those imprisoned suffer the most horrible tortures. They put Falun Gong practitioners in small isolation rooms with no windows. Imprisoned practitioners eat and sleep in the isolation rooms and use a bucket in the room as a toilet. They are completely cut off from the outside world. Being incarcerated in such an inhospitable environment inflicts any normal person with extreme psychological and physical pain. Constant violence makes it worse. One can imagine that a new mother nearly 50 years old, being separated from her baby daughter, must have suffered deep pain and agony!

That's not all. The torturers invented an atrocious torture. They choked her neck with a rope or a ribbon. When Ms. Zhang was about to suffocate, they punched her head violently. But they didn't loosen or untie the rope while punching her!

Facing such inhuman torture, Ms. Zhang protested peacefully by going on a hunger strike, refusing to wear the prison uniform, shouting out loud "Falun Gong is good," and so on. According to an insider, the torturers applied the suffocation-punching torture at least nine times! She lost bladder control twice during this torture.

On the morning of March 20th, 2007, the torturers beat up Ms. Zhang again, which resulted in profuse bleeding on both sides of her head. She went into a coma and was taken to Renhe Hospital in Daxing Town, Beijing City before being transferred to Tiantanghe Hospital in Daxing Town. At around 3:30 p.m., a prison guard named Wang from the camp notified Zhang's husband of her injuries and asked him to sign an agreement form before the hospital began the emergency operation. At 5:20 p.m., Zhang's family hurried to the hospital and found Ms. Zhang in a deep coma. They asked a physician named Xue in duty about Zhang's condition. The physician confirmed that Ms. Zhang's was very badly wounded and that it was most likely caused by beatings.

At this time, staff at the camp is in the process of hiding all evidence and to shifting responsibility for the crimes they committed. Ms. Zhang was brutally beaten, but the staff at the camp refuse to allow her out on bail for better medical treatment. The camp does not allow Ms. Zhang's husband and daughter to see her and fails to provide any reasonable explanation of her injuries.

Given the suffering of Ms. Zhang, her family is desperately trying to find the truth and protect Ms. Zhang's legal rights. We are seeking justice. We hope to put those criminals responsible for her condition behind bars. We hope to find two attorneys that are willing to provide legal representation.

1. Reasons for seeking legal redress:

1) Provide Ms. Zhang Lianying and her family legal consultation
2) Apply for bail for medical treatment on behalf of Ms. Zhang Lianying
3) Meet with Ms. Zhang and investigate the reported abuses and violence
4) Authorise a professional institution to evaluate Ms. Zhang's injuries
5) If necessary, file administrative, criminal and civil lawsuits
6) Represent Ms. Zhang to protect her legal rights

2. Lawyer's attributes:

1) Sense of justice, trustworthy, determination to stay with the case and highly effective
2) Board certified lawyer
3) Familiar with civil and criminal law
4) Capable of handling criminal lawsuits alone. Lawyer with experiences in getting bail for medical treatment will be given consideration first

3. Lawyer Fees

Fees will be depend on the lawyer's professional abilities, normal rates by the respective legal firms and negotiations

Organisations and Individuals Involved in the Persecution:

Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp
Address: 12 Weiyong Road, Tiantanghe, Huangcun Town, Daxing District, Beijing, Hebei Province 102609, China
Deputy Warden: Chen Li (female)
Head of Administrative Department named Shi: 86-10-60279755 ext 5819
Captain of the Intensive Training Team named Wang: 86-10-60278899 ext 5810

The 610 Office in Xiangheyuan, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Yang Yiguo (male): 86-10-64671059

Xiangheyuan Police Station
Deputy Chief Wang Qing

Area Policeman Zhang Weiming: 86-10-64660050, 86-13501066384(mobile)

Liufangnanli Street Administrative Committee in Chaoyang District
Mr. Zhao Yuwang: 86-10-64645203

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/6/1/156012.html