The Persecution of Mr. Yu Shen and His Wife, Ms. Li Wei

On May 11th, 2008, officers from the Zhujiangdao Police Station in the Development District of Qinghuangdao City knocked at the door of Mr. Yu Shen and Ms. Li Wei's home. After the police entered their home, they searched the house and found Falun Gong-related DVDs and materials. They arrested Ms. Li. Mr. Yu and their son managed to escape.

Zhu Weiguo, the chief of the State Security Division of the Development District, brought in police officers to ransack Mr. Yu's home. They confiscated a bank deposit book with two deposits valued at 40,000 yuan¹ and 2,000 yuan, a computer, and Falun Gong books. No receipt was offered and the confiscated items have not been returned.

At around 10 p.m. on May 12th, 2008, Mr. Yu was coming home when he saw from a distance that all the lights in his house were on, including the kitchen lights. He thought his wife had returned home. However, this was a set-up by the police. When Mr. Yu neared his home, a police car suddenly appeared in front of him and the police waiting at his home arrested him. At the Zhujiangdao Police Station, the police threatened and deceived him during the interrogation.

After Mr. Yu was arrested, a practitioner took care of his five-year-old son. However, the officers from the Zhujiangdao Police Station and the State Security Division harassed the care-giving practitioner several times.

Later, Mr. Yu's parents took the child to their home. Mr. Yu's mother had recently had an operation for cancer and was in a very weak condition. Mr. Yu's father had to take care of everything. Ms. Li's mother worried so much about her daughter that she started having mental problems.

After their arrests, Mr. Yu and Ms. Li were detained in the Qinhuangdao City First Detention Centre for five months. On August 8th, 2008, the Development District Court held a secret trial, sentencing both of them to three and a half years in prison. The chief judge was Li Yujun. Ms. Li appealed her case, which will be sent to the Qinhuangdao City Intermediate Court soon.

Mr. Yu and Ms. Li persecuted in the past

Ms. Li Wei is 35 years old. She and her husband, Mr. Yu Shen, were both employees of the Beijing Machinery Research Institute in Miyun County, Beijing. After practising Falun Gong, Ms. Li tried to be a better person by following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She became a healthy and happy person.

In 1999, Ms. Li visited the central Beijing area for six days. When she returned home, Guo Yahuang, the director the police station affiliated with the Beijing Machinery Research Institute, forced her to write a guarantee statement renouncing Falun Gong. She was not allowed to return to work if she refused to comply.

Since the persecution of Falun Gong started on July 20th, 1990, Mr. Yu and Ms. Li have been sent to brainwashing centres repeatedly. They have been constantly harassed when they are not attending the brainwashing sessions. They had to move back to Mr. Yu's home town in Qinhuangdao City, Shandong Province.

Over a year after they moved back to Qinhuangdao City, Guo Yahuang sent police officers to arrest them and bring them back to Miyun County. Mr. Yu was sent to Daxing Prison in Beijing. Since Ms. Li was pregnant at the time, she was placed on parole. Later, her father brought her back to live with her family in Baiquan County, Heilongjiang Province, to wait for the birth of her baby.

Before Ms. Li arrived in Baiquan County, officials from the Beijing Machinery Research Institute informed the local police about her arrival and told them to monitor her. Officers from the Baiquan County Police Station detained her for 12 days. During her detention, the police tried to call Guo Yahuang several times to ask him to take Ms. Li back to Beijing. Guo Yahuang refused to answer their calls.

When their baby boy was over a year old, Mr. Yu was released. Xu Minrui, the Party secretary of the Beijing Machinery Research Institute, refused to let Ms. Li and Mr. Yu come back to work because they would not renounce Falun Gong. At first the institute paid them about 400 yuan each month, but after a while, they didn't get paid any more. Without an income, Mr. Yu, Ms. Li, and their son moved back to Qinhuangdao City. Mr. Yu found a temporary job at Yashan University, and Ms. Li stayed home to take care of their son.

Mr. Yu's parents could not understand what their son and daughter-in-law were doing. They had heard so many of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) lies and slanderous propaganda against Falun Gong, and witnessed the persecution that Mr. Yu and Ms. Li suffered. They were also pressured by the 610 Office² and the police station. The parents limited the couple's contact with other people.

After the couple returned to Qinhuangdao City, institute officials sent people to continually harass them. The officials worked with officers from the Zhujiangdao Police Station to send officials from the local residential community committee to monitor them. The institute officials also tried to send their files back to the local police station so that they could officially fire them. Both Mr. Yu and Ms. Li protested those actions.

When the couple first arrived in Qinhuangdao City, they didn't have much money and had to rent a place to live. To save money, they did not turn the heat on in the winter. Just when their life started to getter better, they were arrested again.

We call upon the kind hearted people of the world to help rescue Mr. Yu and Ms. Li.

Note

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

2. "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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/10/16/187819.html