Officials of Liaoning Province Women's Prison Prevent Lawyers from Visiting with Defendants

On December 2008, officials of the Shenbei New District Court in Shenyang City handed down a very unreasonable judgement and used the charge of "violating the law" in order to sentence Ms. Wang Shumei, Mr. Xi Changhai, Mr. Huo Defu and Mr. Sun Yushu to very heavy penalties. The lawyers, who were hired by Ms. Wang Shumei's and Mr. Xi Changhai's families, pleaded with the officials of the Women's Prison in Liaoning Province to allow them to meet with their clients, but their request was unreasonably denied.

On February 18th, 2009, the families of Ms. Wang and Mr. Xi separately hired well known human rights lawyers Mr. Tang Jitian and Mr. Lan Zhixue to defend these innocent practitioners. The lawyers examined the court's documents in accordance with legal procedures and met separately with their clients in the Shenyang City Detention Centre and the Shenbei District Detention Centre respectively. These two lawyers immediately express-mailed appeal documents to Bian Fuxueat, Chief Justice at the Intermediate People's Court in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province.

On March 4th, 2009, the lawyers again followed up with another legal procedure and requested to meet with their clients, but were told that Ms. Wang Shumei had been transferred to the Liaoning Province Women's Prison and Mr. Xi Changhai had been transferred to another prison used to house new inmates in Liaonng Province. Lawyer Mr. Lan Zhixue went to the Women's Prison and submitted his request to see Ms. Wang. He was told by personnel working at the procedures window that a single lawyer is not permitted to meet with a defendant. The personnel then told the lawyer that Ms. Wang was being held in the No. 8 Division.

After several twists and turns, on May 13th, 2009, the two lawyers again went to the Liaoning Province Women's Prison, submitted the required legal documents, and asked to meet with Ms. Wang. This time they were told by case personnel that, although the legal documents were properly completed, they still needed to go to the Judicial Department and fill out a meeting request approval form. The two lawyers had no other choice but to go back and file the request.

To further confirm the whereabouts of Mr. Xi Changhai, the lawyers went to Shenyang City Prison for new inmates. The prison personnel told the lawyers that Mr. Xi was being detained at the Shenyang City Detention Centre, section No. 1, in Liaoning Province. When the lawyers arrived at that location, personnel with the prison's political branch said, "Mr. Xi Changhai is being imprisoned in the No. 23 Division. It's past the stipulated meeting time; you will have to wait till tomorrow to meet your client." Around 10:00 a.m. the next morning, after the lawyers had submitted their legitimate requests, they finally got to meet with their client. Mr. Xi told the lawyers: "The prison authorities have forced members of my family and friends to visit me. The prison guards attempted to use my loved one's affection to try to 'transform¹' me. Although my freedom is being restricted, I refuse to compromise with the authorities and will not do anything unworthy that could bring shame to Falun Gong!"

Around 2:00 p.m. on May 14th, the lawyers once again followed legal procedures and requested to meet with Ms. Wang. They were told again that, although the legal documents were complete, they still needed to go to the Liaoning Province Judicial Department to file an approval. These lawyers then asked these people why they had not mentioned this when they had met with Mr. Xi earlier? Were they not performing their duty? They also wanted to know if they had to request an approval from the Judicial Department for prisoners that are not Falun Gong practitioners or do these requests only apply to Falun Gong practitioners? The prison personnel refused to give a direct answer. They said that the order was issued by higher-ups and that all visitation with Falun Gong practitioners needed to be filed with the Judicial Department for approval. The lawyers then visited a deputy warden's office who told them that the request to file a meeting approval to see practitioners was issued by the National Ministry of Justice in 2004. They said that they could not find the paperwork now and to just go and file the request!

Liaoning Province Women's Prison

Administrative team of Liaoning Province Women's Prison

Yang Li, Chief Warden, Liaoning Province Women's Prison

Thus, it seems that this request was only a verbal order from those higher ups and does not have any legal grounds.

In view of the facts above, lawyers Tang Jitian and Mr. Lan Zhixue are planning to file a complaint against the Political Department of the Prison for new inmates in Liaoning Province. They also plan to file a complaint against the Political Department chief from Panjing Prison for intentionally delaying their meeting with Mr. Xi Changhai and for obstructing their meeting with Ms. Wang Sumei.

Mailing address:
Liaoning Province Women's Prison
Baixintai Village, Pinluo Town, Yuhong District, Zip code 110145

Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China

Telephone numbers for the Liaoning Province Women's Prison:
The first eight digits are 86-24-8929

Prison leaders:

Yang Li: 6666
Fang Shuxia: 6677
Wang Tie: 6655
Zheng Enfu: 6767
Xu Ming: 6633
Yu Yi: 6667
Li Hongwei: 6768
Xu Jianmei: 6688
Zhang Jing: 6628
Sun Guijuan: 6618
Wang Wei: 6668
Wang Liyan: 6699
Ai Hui: 6868
Ma Yugin: 6877

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://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/5/23/201442.html