Pilot Sun Li Sentenced to Seven Years--Wife Forced to Divorce Him

Name: Sun Li
Gender: Male
Age: 40
Address: Tiantaiyi Road, Qingdao City
Occupation: Pilot with China Eastern Airlines
Date of Most Recent Arrest: August 19th, 2008
Most recent place of detention: Jinan Prison
City: Jinan
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Electric shock, sleep deprivation, forced labour, beatings, imprisonment, torture, job dismissal, interrogation, detention

In May 2009, Mr. Sun Li was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Nanqu Court in Qingdao City. On June 25th, he was sent to the Jinan Prison.

Ms. Sun started practising Falun Gong in 1999. Within several months, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started persecuting Falun Gong. Officials from China Eastern airlines thus had a policy of not allowing their employees to practise Falun Gong, lest they be fired or, for a pilot, banned from boarding the aircraft. Mr. Sun continued to hold to his belief and did not yield to this pressure.

Because he did not give up Falun Gong practice, he has been persecuted numerous times during the past ten years by officials at his workplace, the State Security Bureau, the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong), the police, and more. His wife, a flight attendant, could not bear the intense pressure and had to divorce him.

In April 2002, officials at his workplace, together with officials from the local 610 Office, took Mr. Sun to a brainwashing centre, located at 34 Mingxia Road. During his detention, he was forced to sign documents promising to give up practising Falun Gong. By then, his wife was already seven months pregnant.

Not long after his wife gave birth, Mr. Sun was again sent to a brainwashing centre. He was forced to watch videos daily which slandered Falun Gong. Officials also attempted to force him to write statements promising to denounce Falun Gong, saying that doing so could lead to him being released and reunited with his family, as well as keeping his job. Mr. Sun did not yield and later walked out of the brainwashing centre. In order to avoid further persecution, he subsequently became homeless and was unable to take care of his wife and two-month-old daughter.

During that period of time, officials from Mr. Sun's workplace and the 610 Office ordered his wife to find him. They told her that her husband had been fired and she would also lose her job unless she found him. Considering her daughter, who was only several months old, Mr. Sun's wife could not bear the pressure and had to place a statement in the local newspaper announcing their divorce.

In the spring of 2004, Mr. Sun was arrested in Zibo City, Shandong Province, after being followed by dozens of officers from the State Security Bureau in multiple vans. He was put in handcuffs, his head covered with a black bag, and taken to a hotel, where he was beaten. Afterward, he was detained in a Qingdao City hotel and interrogated for a long time while being deprived of sleep. Three months later, he was released on parole but was still often harassed by State Security Bureau officials.

At about 5:00 p.m. one day in August 2006, Mr. Sun was followed by police officers from the Shinan Criminal Division and arrested. After walking away, once again he became homeless to avoid further persecution. Officials from the Qingdao City's Criminal Division and the State Security Bureau have since spent a lot of resources trying to arrest him.

Starting on January 25th, 2008, under the direct orders of the Shandong provincial police officials, the Qingdao City 610 Office worked with the city police and the Shibei Criminal Division police to mass-arrest practitioners who were involved in producing information materials regarding the persecution of Falun Gong. Six large Falun Gong informational material production sites were damaged, and more than ten practitioners were arrested, representing a financial loss of up to 1 million yuan¹. Four cars and one motorcycle were also confiscated. All the arrested practitioners were brutally tortured, and many were injured. Officials from the Qingdao City 610 Office and the police reported this as the "13-person case" to the Police Ministry as a major accomplishment. Staff of the Shibei Criminal Division of the Qingdao City Police was awarded hundreds of thousands of yuan by the Police Ministry. It was said that as early as 2006, when some material production sites in the suburbs of Qingdao City were damaged, the Shandong Provincial Police considered this as a major case.

Officials from the Qingdao City 610 Office and the police claimed that Mr. Sun was a key person in this major case, and the 610 Office established a special task force to arrest him at any cost. They organised residential committees and patrol police officers to keep an eye out. Specifically, during the Olympic Games, rental places were recorded and searched, and Mr. Sun's picture was photocopied and distributed. The Criminal Police Division, the State Security Bureau, and plainclothes police officers sent many people to the places where his friends and relatives lived.

At about 6:00 p.m. on August 19, 2008, when Mr. Sun was leaving a building where his friend lived, on a motorcycle, a plainclothes police officer asked pedestrians if he was Mr. Sun. Instantly, up to 40 people appeared and pushed him down to the ground, handcuffed him, and took him in a police van to the Xiangangzhonglu Police Station.

Ms. Lu Yanru was also arrested at the same time and her home was ransacked afterward. The property confiscated included a motorcycle, a laptop computer, a DVD-writer, a printer, DVDs, an MP3 player, Falun Gong books, mobile phones, and cash.

Inside the police station, officers cursed at Ms. Lu. That night, they brutally tortured Mr. Sun by beating, kicking, and electrically shocking him. Police officers kicked him hard in his lower body with their leather boots. Throughout that night, there was yelling from the officers along with Mr. Sun's painful screams. The officers tried to force him to admit his participation in the printing and transporting of materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong.

Mr. Sun's face was disfigured from the torture. In May 2009, he was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Shinan Court. On June 25th, he was sent to the Jinan Prison. Ms. Lu was detained at the Dashan Detention Centre for one month and then sent to the Wangcun Forced Labour Camp in Zibo City for 13 months.

Note

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

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2009/12/26/215091.html