Mr. Liu Yongwang Serving Eight-Year Sentence--Family Denied Proper Visitation

Mr. Liu Yongwang, from Beijing, has been detained at the Jidong Prison in Hebei Province. To protest his unjust imprisonment he started a hunger strike which lasted almost two years. During that period he was brutally force-fed and passed out from the pain on numerous occasions. Several times he was on the brink of death. In addition, the prison warden secretly held all mail coming into the prison for Mr. Liu and would not permit him to properly visit with his family. It was only under the care of his family and good friends that Mr. Liu started eating regularly in April 2008.

In late April 2008, Mr. Liu's wife, Ms. Qi Shuying, a physical education teacher at Baoding College (formerly Baoding Teachers College), went to the First Ward of the Jidong Prison to visit her husband. Upon arriving, she spoke to Zhang Fuliang, chief of the Education Department, and asked him to arrange a meeting with her husband. He agreed and told her to go to the prison meeting room to wait.

Ms. Qi waited from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Then, just when the meeting room was about to close, Zhang and the Zheng Yajun, the prison's section chief, came in and told her, "You are allowed to meet with your husband, but only for five minutes." She replied, "Every time I come here you force me to wait for long periods of time. I've been waiting here since 7:00 a.m., but you allow me only five minutes to see him."

Zhang said, "We had to argue on your behalf just to get you these five minutes." Zheng cut in saying, "If you want to meet him for five minutes, you can meet. Otherwise, you can't meet with him!" Ms. Qi had no choice but to comply with the unreasonable demands.

After saying just a few sentences to her husband on the prison telephone, Zheng, who was monitoring the call said, "If you talk about these things again, we will hang up the phone." Mr. Liu's wife said, "I talked to my husband about something that I did that was wrong and simply asked him how he thought I should handle the situation. Am I not allowed to ask these types of questions?" After saying this, Zheng immediately disconnected the call. The total time that the couple talked was less than two minutes. Ms. Qi left the prison in tears.

On October 20th, 2008, when Mr. Liu's father and Ms. Qi went to visit him, the guards forced them to wait from approximately 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Just when the meeting room door was about to close, Zhang came out and told them that only the father was allowed to see Mr. Liu. Ms. Qi said, "Why can't I see my own husband?"

Zhang angrily replied, "If you keep complaining like this, don't even think about asking me to see your husband the next time you come!" Ms. Qi replied, "If you are not the right person to ask, then who should I ask? You are the person in charge, right?" Mr. Liu's father realized that the situation was quickly getting out of hand. In order to see his son that day, he persuaded Ms. Qi to give into Zhang's demands.

Over the past two years, the guards have allowed Mr. Liu's family to properly visit with him just once--when he was on the verge of death in December 2006. All previous requests to meet with Mr. Liu were either met with excuses or the family was allowed to visit Mr. Liu only after all the other prisoner's relatives had left the meeting room, meaning, the family could only visit with Mr. Liu for a few minutes before closing time.

It is a basic right of imprisoned inmates to be able to visit with their family members. However, for Falun Gong practitioners, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has rescinded that right. Even when Mr. Liu is able to meet with his family, he is always accompanied by three or four inmates.

Before being arrested, Mr. Liu was a division manager and a general engineer of a foreign company in Beijing. When police officers from the Beijing Security Bureau found out that Mr. Liu was practising Falun Gong, they raided his workplace in May 2000, while Mr. Liu was on a Shanghai business trip. When Mr. Liu returned from his trip, Beijing State Security officers, together with police officers in Shanghai, arrested him, and detained him in the Seventh Division for a month. As a result, his family was forced to leave home.

In 2001, Mr. Liu was again arrested and detained at a Shanghai detention centre. He was later transferred to a detention centre in Baoding City in Hebei Province for a period of 88 days. In December 2001, he was transferred to the Baoding City Forced Labour Camp.

On October 13th, 2002, guards dragged Mr. Liu into a room that is specifically set up to torture practitioners. The guards not only pressured him to give up practising Falun Gong, but they also tied him up, beat him with electric batons and rubber sticks, and whipped his face with a leather belt, which knocked out one of his teeth.

His head and inner thighs were repeatedly shocked with electric batons, producing the smell of burnt flesh in the air. After his left leg was tortured to the point of being disabled, he was transferred to the Tangshan City Forced Labour Camp, where the torture continued. Early in May 2004, he was diagnosed as having "neurological damage to both lower extremities." In June 2004, he was released on medical parole.

In August 2005, Mr. Liu was again arrested by agents from the Beijing State Security Division. After his arrest, he was taken to a Beijing City Security Department Detention Centre, then later transferred to the Baoding City Detention Centre.

On November 7th-13th, 2005, officers from the Special Case Group extracted a "confession" out of Mr. Liu after tying his two feet to a chair and repeatedly shocking him with electric batons. In addition, he was not permitted to close his eyes for seven days and nights. On May 11th, 2006, he was sentenced to eight years in prison. On June 16th, 2008, Mr. Liu was taken to Jidong Prison in Tangshan City.

On August 4th, 2008, Ms. Qi was arrested and forced to attend CCP "study sessions" while in custody. Everyone who knows Ms. Qi considers her a kind and hard working person. Even on her limited salary, she quietly helps out several poor students that she knows.

First Ward of the Jidong Prison:
Li Kaijiang, commander: 86-315-8501922 (Home), 86-13931531426 (Mobile), 86-315-8313001 (Office)
Li Tielin, deputy commander (in charge of persecuting practitioners): 86-315-8501728 (Home), 86-13171500822(Mobile)
Zhang Fuliang, education chief (in charge of persecuting practitioners): 86-315-8313950 (Home), 86-315-8313089 (Office), 86-13513398796 (Mobile)
Ma Changzheng, chief of the Prison Political Department (in charge of persecuting practitioners): 86-315-8313086 (Office), 86-13653155808(Mobile)
Li Zhanhu, captain of the Construction Division (where Mr. Liu Yongwang was held): 86-315-8501555 (Home), 86-13903378997 (Mobile)
Zheng Yajun, head captain: 86-315-8317139 (Home), 86-13081132787 (Mobile)

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/12/23/192099.html