Practitioners Mr. Huang Wei and his wife Ms. Hao Qiuyan from Shijiazhuang City were released on July 22nd, 2008. This came about through their own 12-day protest hunger strike, in addition to the rescue efforts of the fellow practitioners.
Mr. Huang Wei suffers from high blood pressure and Ms. Hao Qiuyan is physically weak. They are currently recovering. The other practitioners who were detained with them and went on a hunger strike together are still detained in a labour camp and their lives are in danger. We call for support and attention from the international community.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) completely ignores its commitment to improve human rights prior to the Olympics and openly violates the Olympic spirit. Its hypocritical mask pretends a harmonious society and administering the country according to the Rule of Law, but when the mask is removed, the true face is revealed - a repressive, gangster regime! Under the pretext of the Olympics, the ruling regime demolished people's homes and rampantly arrest legal appellants and Falun Gong practitioners.
According to incomplete statistics, the Shijiazhuang City area alone has seen 66 incidents of police interference and the arrest of close to 80 Falun Gong practitioners since April 2008. Hundreds of families have been harassed by police. There are no complete statistics of other forms of harassment.
As the Olympics torch was approaching Shijiazhuang City, the police system in particular had ordered the arrests of all practitioners on the "blacklist" on July 4th and July 8th. This decision came from the city police department and required all local police stations to carry out the order by going door-to-door. The arrested practitioners were sent to detention centres and forced labour camps. Some were sent to each district's Legal System Education Schools (brainwashing centres). No one knows where some of the practitioners ended up. Their families have lost contact with them. Manager of the Hebei Medicine and Biology Engineering Company Huang Wei and his wife were among the missing practitioners. Following are details:
Mr. Huang Wei left his home at 7:00 a.m. on July 4th, 2008 to go to work. A plain-clothes policeman stationed outside the residential building arrested him. Seven officers arrested his wife Hao Qiuyan and ransacked the home.
The couple was detained for 15 days at the Shijiazhuang City Detention Centre. There were forbidden to contact their family members, meet with a lawyer and get a change of clothes. They were secretly sentenced to forced labour. Mr. Huang Wei and Ms. Hao Qiuyan went on a hunger strike on July 11th, 2008.
With the efforts of fellow practitioners, they hired Beijing lawyers Mr. Li Jinsong, Mr. Li Heping, Mr. Cheng and Mr. Tang to represent the couple. The lawyers went to Shijiazhuang City three times to meet with the couple, but got nowhere. Detention centre officials and police agents prevented the lawyers from meeting with the practitioners. The persecutors even threatened the lawyers. After the couple's administrative detention term was up, the perpetrators sent them to the local Legal System Education School (brainwashing class). They refused to let the family know the couple's whereabouts. Hedong Police Station political head Qu Jianbo declared, "As long as we could find a tiny shred of evidence, there is no way for Huang Wei to get out." The lawyers went to the Hedong Street Residential Administration Office to request the release of the two innocent citizens. The office staff was rude and pushed the lawyers out of the door and even called the police. Agents from the Changan District 610 Office1 were even more unreasonable and told the lawyers to go to the court. They also implied that the law does not apply to the 610 Office.
The four Beijing lawyers filed five petitions with the local government agencies regarding the Shijiazhuang Public Security and regime officials' illegal and criminal activities involving violations of human rights.
1. Petition regarding activities of detention centre head Cui from the Shijiazhuang Police Department refusing to meet with the lawyers, and Hedong Police Station head Su Wenxing's refusal to notify the couple's family members of administrative detention.
2. Petition regarding the criminal activities of political head Qu Jianbo from the Hedong Police Station, Jiao Yaoqiang from the Hedong Street Residential Administration Office and the staff at the 610 Office in the Changan District.
3. Responsible parties in the Detention Centre's refusal to meet with the lawyers, leading to Huang Wei and Hao Qiuyan going on a nine-day protest hunger strike, putting their lives in peril.
4. Petition regarding illegal activities of a female staff person in the Changan District 610 Office on July 19th.
5. Agents in the Shijiazhuang police system engaging in illegal and criminal activities under the pretext of the Olympics should be punished according to law.
Li Jinsong's "Lawyers' Special Urgent Petition Letter"
The lawyers expressed their views with special petition documents that chronicled the officials' refusal to let them meet with their clients in the detention centre, and stated "in accordance with China's laws and regulations, believing in Falun Gong is not a violation of any laws. It is not a criminal act. Without any evidence of the two practitioners having violated the law, the police ransacked their house and detained them. The police have severely violated the laws and regulations. We represent our clients and request reconsideration of their administrative penalties and litigation. We request the concerned departments to revoke the punishment decision. By the detention centre's staff stubbornly refusing to arrange for a meeting with the lawyers, they have denied Huang Wei and Hao Qiuyan's access to lawyers and their constitutional right to legal assistance. Detention centre head Cui has committed the crime of dereliction of duty."
Lawyer Li also made the following requests: 1) To order officials at the detention centre to immediately arrange for Huang Wei and Hao Qiuyan to meet with the lawyers, in accordance with the law. 2) As of today (July 18th), the 15-day administrative detention has come full term. We are asking supervisors at the Changan District Police Department to immediately release Huang Wei and Hao Qiuyan.
The lawyers believe that freedom of belief and practising Falun Gong are citizen's legal rights. All participants who have detained Falun Gong practitioners in brainwashing classes have committed a breach of law, that of illegal detention. Lawyer Li Jinsong in his petition letter called for "severe punishment of people in the Shijiazhuang police system for detaining citizens under the pretext of the Olympics."
Lawyer Li began his letter, "It is known that the parties concerned in Shijiazhuang City demolished residential buildings and arrested citizens. More than 80 law-abiding citizens were taken to detention centres and forced labour camps. Some were sent to brainwashing centres. For some of them, even their families do not know their present whereabouts. I believe that these are serious violations, not only violating the central government' solemn commitment for the Olympics - to improve human rights, but the regime also violates the Olympic spirit. Their actions even go against our country's Rule of Law and hope for a harmonious society. The case of Huang Wei and Hao Qiuyan is just one example.
I am sending this petition letter to you according to the relevant provisions of the People's Republic of China's Code of Criminal Procedure, in order to safeguard national dignity and social equality and justice, to report the criminal activities of the arrest of citizens Huang Wei and Hao Qiuyan. The parties responsible for these actions are: Head Su Wenxing and Political Leader Qu Jianbo from the Hedong Police Station in the Changan District, head Jiao Yaoqiang, secretary Lu Zhiqiang and deputy secretary Wei Chunyou from the Hedong Street Residential Administration Office and responsible parties from the 610 Office in the Changan District."
Background Information:
Mr. Huang Wei, 39, worked as a sales representative at the Hebei Medicine and Biology Engineering Company in Shijiazhuang City. Neighbours and colleagues liked and respected him. Mr. Huang Wei's wife, Hao Qiuyan, 36, had studied art design. She is good at painting, and is a very kind and honest person.
Mr. Huang Wei started practising Falun Gong in the spring of 1995. He benefited physically and mentally from the practice and rid himself of smoking, gambling, drinking and other bad habits. His relationship with his wife and other members of his family grew more harmonious. After the persecution began, however, Mr. Huang was charged with "unsuccessful attempt to appeal" and sentenced to three years of forced labour in late 1999.
Mr. Huang returned home in late 2002. Toward the end of 2003, some of his friends helped him start a wholesale medicine and clothing business. He partnered with several other Falun Gong practitioners who were unemployed at the time. On April 13th, 2004, four policemen including Yang Yuliang from the Hedong Police Station and Li Guoqiang from the Changan Police Department arrested Mr. Huang when he took his child to the playschool. Mr. Huang Wei was charged with "refusing to be "reformed2"" and sentenced to three years of forced labour. His wife Ms. Hao Qiuyan was detained in a brainwashing centre for more than eight months for hiring lawyers for Huang Wei.
Due to renowned lawyer Mr. Gao Zhisheng's calling for support and continuous rescue efforts by kind-hearted people from both China and abroad, the couple finally found their freedom in April 2005. With the help of their family and friends, the couple's life and career improved and gradually came back on track.
On July 4th, 2008, due to the approaching Olympics, mass arrests of Falun Gong practitioners in Shijiazhuang City happened, and the couple was arrested as part of this campaign. The police said that Hao Qiuyan "was too active," but she merely concentrated on her painting at home, in order to take care of their school-age son and practically never ventured out of doors. Huang Wei's company was back on track as well. It was only because of the Olympics that the couple who follow the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance was arrested again. Their peaceful life was disturbed again.
The same night of the couple's arrest, their parents went to the Heidong Police Station to bring them a change of clothing. The police told them to come the next day. When they went there the next day the couple had already been transferred. No one told them their whereabouts, greatly worrying the parents.
The eight-year-old son suddenly no longer had his parents to take care of him and lives with a 79-year-old diabetic grandfather and the 77-year-old grandmother who has severe heart disease.
Note
1. "The 610 office" is 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.
2. "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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/7/27/182879.html
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