Family of Four Imprisoned for Their Belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance

Ms. Wang Aifang is a resident of Farm 8511 in the Mudanjiang Bureau of State Farms and Land Reclamation (Mudanjiang Bureau in short). Ms. Wang, her daughter, son, and daughter-in-law have been frequently detained, imprisoned, and brutally tortured since 2002.

Police officers make arrest at a market

In mid-April 2002, officer Zheng Lianchong from Longtou Town Police Station arrested Ms. Wang at a farmers' market and interrogated her at the station. Several hours later Zheng, along with Chen Xiangjun and a few other officers, went to the residence of Mr. Liu Qiliang, Ms. Wang's son. Having ransacked Mr. Liu's residence but not finding anything they wanted, the officers still arrested Mr. Liu and his wife, Ms. Zhang Xiuying. The same group of policemen then went to the residence of Ms. Wang's daughter, Ms. Liu Guihua, and ransacked it but again failed to find anything they wanted. Zheng Lianchong still arrested Ms. Liu Guihua.

Although the police did not find anything they needed, they took a small backpack from Ms. Liu's home, got plastic bags and Falun Gong books from elsewhere, put these inside Ms. Liu's backpack, and then laid everything on Mr. Liu's four-wheeled vehicle. They photographed the vehicle with the backpack. Claiming they found evidence from Mr. Liu's residence, they reported Mr. Liu to the police department.

Local police station agents and those from the police department lied to Ms. Wang, saying "You're so old, just tell us something, and then we'll let you go."

Ms. Wang replied, "You've arrested all four of us, but what crimes have we committed?" The police presented the fabricated "evidence" to the Procuratorate, who then brought their cases to court.

As soon as the court was in session, prosecutor Zhang Bo yelled at Ms. Wang, blaming her for not speaking and not doing things the way they wanted. The four practitioners asked permission to tell the court officials about Falun Gong and the persecution relating to the accusations, but the judge interrupted and prohibited them from defending themselves. The trial adjourned abruptly.

As the four practitioners were leaving the courtroom, the prosecutor and the judge began to blame each other. The judge told the prosecutor, "Look what you've done. You told me to hold a speedy trial even before straightening things out yourself first. When they asked you questions, you couldn't even answer. You have no evidence at all, and the lame stuff you put together was obviously faked. Then, as soon as they spoke up, you began to curse them. Now that they know our faults, what do you want us to do?" The prosecutor protested, "You should have said things the way we had planned." All four practitioners overheard what was being said until the court police shouted, "Move quickly. Don't listen!"

Mudanjiang Bureau Court officials handed the four of them sentences of from three to four years, even though the court failed to collect any evidence.

They appealed. The court officials from Heilongjiang Province General Bureau of State Farms and Land Reclamation sent a few people to investigate the incidents. Knowing that the police had fabricated evidence and testimony, the investigators said, "We know you've been treated wrongly, but just let it be, unless your Falun Gong can change the law." That is why the four members of Ms. Wang Aifang's family were imprisoned in Mudanjiang Prison and Harbin Women's Prison.

Ms. Wang Aifang subjected to gross abuse in prison

In her late 60's, prior to her Falun Gong practice, Ms. Wang used to suffer from all kinds of ailments: heart disease, lung disease, insufficient blood supply to the brain. Her ailments made her feel hopeless. After she began practising Falun Gong in 1998, however, all her illnesses were cured, without taking any medicine. She distributed Falun Gong information to her neighbours, family, and friends, in great appreciation of the practice.

Ms. Wang was imprisoned in the Harbin City Women's Prison's Intensive Training Team and was eventually transferred to the senior team. The day following her transfer, she witnessed the brutal torture of practitioner Ms. Xiao Yufen (who was later tortured to death) by guard Li Xiaoying. Ms. Wang pointed at Li Xiaoying and demanded to know, "Why do you strike her?" Li Xiaoying continued slapping Ms. Xiao's face a few more times, even after Ms. Wang's question. Ms. Wang said, "Why don't you stop hitting her!" Li Xiaoying then ordered criminal inmates to drag Ms. Xiao away. Ms. Xiao was handcuffed behind her back and forced to stand on the concrete floor for an entire day.

Ms. Zhang Xiuying brutalised in prison

Ms. Zhang Xiuying is about 45 years old. She began practising Falun Gong after seeing the great physical and spiritual changes that took place in her mother-in-law, Ms. Wang Aifang.

Following her sentencing, she was held in the Harbin City Women's Prison's Intensive Training Team and was brutally tortured. After she was beaten, her eyes were swollen for a month.

She was then imprisoned in the No. 5 Ward, where the guards incited criminal inmates to torture her. She was forced to sit for extended periods on a small stool and stay outside in freezing cold temperatures and was prohibited from sleeping. The guards also used electric batons to hit practitioners and dragged them outside to be exposed to freezing weather for two days in a row.

Having had to endure a whole day of exposure to the freezing elements, criminal inmates stripped Harbin City practitioner Ms. Zhao Yalun of all her clothes in the evening and buried her in the snow for a long time. In spite of having access to heaters, the guards who monitored the practitioners still suffered from frostbite, and some of their hands and faces were frozen. But the practitioners whom the guards had purposely put in the cold did not get frostbite.

After being exposed to freezing temperatures for two days, the practitioners refused to submit to the guards' orders anymore. They would not go outside, so the prison authorities sent 60 to 70 thugs to forcibly drag the practitioners outside. The practitioners resisted. A guard hit Ms. Ma Aiqiao in the head with a plastic chair. She sustained a large triangular cut that bled profusely, covering her in blood. Practitioners attempted to stop the guards from carrying out their vicious actions but were met with a group of barbaric guards, who used electric batons, police batons, and plastic hoses to strike them. All the practitioners were injured and bleeding and were eventually dragged outside to be exposed to freezing weather six days in a row.

Ms. Zhang and Ms. Wang were released after three years.

Mr. Liu Qiliang

Mr. Liu Qiliang is 45 years old and employed at Squat 24 of Farm 8511. In April 2002, police officers Zheng Lianchong and Chen Xiangjun arrested him while he was fixing his car at home. As Mr. Liu was taken to the Baoqing Police Station, those who knew him including the head of the police station, Li Baojun, all hid, so that the three officers at the Baoqing Police Station could brutally strike Mr. Liu at will. After that, they took Mr. Liu to the 8511 Farm's Police Department to be interrogated. Mr. Liu was given a four-year sentence and released in 2006.

Ms. Liu Guihua subjected to gross abuse while in prison

Ms. Liu Guihua was an employee of Squad 24, Farm 8511. Ms. Liu went to Beijing in October 1999 to appeal for justice for Falun Gong. Qianmen Police Station agents arrested her and beat her ruthlessly. Party Secretary of Farm 8511 Li Li and the Farm's Police Department head, Zhao Zhou, flew to Beijing to take her back. They forced her family to pay the trip expenses, including the cost of entertainment, shopping, dance clubs, and even their toilet paper. Ms. Liu's family paid 5,000 yuan¹. Zhao Dan signed a tally of their costs, but they had no receipt for Ms. Liu's family. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) head, Wang Litian, of Squad 24 also fined Ms. Liu's family 700 yuan for finding Ms. Liu and bringing her back.

In late February 2000, farm employee Zhang Rongjing (she has since moved to Baoqing County), who was in charge of monitoring Ms. Liu's residence, reported Ms. Liu to Zheng Lianchong from Farm 8511 Police Department while she was reading at home. Zheng and Ms. Liu graduated from the same class at school. Immediately thereafter, Zheng and Zhao Zhou broke into Ms. Liu's home to search her residence at night. Ms. Liu's husband refused to let them search it. Zheng and his gang of police officers arrested both of them and took them to the Farm 8511 Police Department. They were eventually transferred to a detention centre, where the guards incited the criminal inmates to torture Ms. Zhang's non-practitioner husband, an epileptic. But the guards claimed he was pretending to have seizures and hence tortured him even more severely. Ms. Liu's husband was detained for over 40 days, while Ms. Liu was detained for more than 90 days.

Wanjia Forced Labour Camp

Chen Xiangjun and Zhao Zhou again arrested Ms. Liu Guihua and transported her to a detention centre. Their reason was association with another arrested practitioner at the end of December 2000. Chen Xiangjun and Liu Li used a written statement from an interrogation of another practitioner as evidence and had Ms. Liu sent to the notorious Wanjia Forced Labour Camp.

They were forced to sit daily on tiny benches and deprived of sleep. The guards tied her hands behind her back and hung her up from a post for 48 hours. She was forbidden to use the toilet and had to soil herself. The guards then took off her trousers and cover her mouth with them. They used duct tape to cover her mouth. Ms. Liu went on 30-day hunger strike to protest. The guards force-fed her and beat her. She was covered in bruises. In the summer she was forced to stand under the hot sun; in winter she was forced to stand on the ground barefoot.

Once, guards beat an older practitioner who refused to be force-fed. Ms. Liu shouted, "Do not beat her!" When the guards were caught off guard and were still hesitating, she ran over and picked up the elderly practitioner and ran out. The guards then realised what was going on and caught up. The prison hospital head punched her in the face, making her nose and mouth bleed. He then kicked her and beat her until she lost consciousness. She did not come to for three days. She was released at the end of 2001, after one year of torture at the Wanjia Forced Labour Camp.

Put in prison again

Ms. Liu, her mother, and sister-in-law were arrested again on April 12th, 2002. She was sentenced to four years of imprisonment on November 7th, 2002. Issuing the sentence for the Harbin Women's Prison were agents from Mudanjiang Bureau's Court. She was cruelly beaten right after she got there because she said, "Falun Gong is good." Following abuse in the "Intensive Training Team," she was detained in the No.5 Ward.

Ms. Liu refused to report her name or wear the prison uniform. The guards then incited other inmates to beat her, shock her with electric batons, and expose her to the cold for seven days. To stop the gross abuse, Ms. Liu demanded to talk to the prison director to expose the guards' actions. Her request was denied. Later when the guards beat her again, she fought to take the electric baton from them and throw it away. A group of guards came up and tried to beat her to death. Deputy No. 5 Ward head Tao Shuping said, "Hold off beating her. She'll be useful later." Then she said to Ms. Liu, "Didn't you want to have a conversation with the director? They will take you there." It turned out she was sent to a solitary cell. They said, "You want to talk to the director? You can talk here." The guards took off her clothes and dressed her in the prison uniform against her will. Ms. Liu was handcuffed to a metal rail and forbidden to use the toilet. Her only daily food consisted of a small bowl of corn porridge. If she refused to eat it, they force-fed her. She was let out of solitary 20 days later.

Deputy head Tao Shuping then tied Ms. Liu to a bed from 5:00 am to midnight. Ms. Liu's only daily food was two buns. When she was let off the bed after 20 days, she was extremely thin and weak.

It was Chinese New Year time. Ms. Liu's brother came over to visit her. Although Tao Shuping let them see each other, afterwards Tao Shuping and a prison guard named Li wanted to have a conversation with Ms. Liu. She refused to go into the room to talk to them because she did not consider herself a criminal and refused to report her name as a criminal. Tao and Li waited in the room for a long time. When they saw that Ms. Liu still refused to report, they opened the door and beat her cruelly in the hallway. Her face was covered in bruises, and her eyes were swollen.

There have been so many incidents of gross abuse in that prison. Ms. Liu was released mid-May in 2006.

Brother and sister arrested again

After Mr. Liu Qiliang and Ms. Liu Guihua were released from prison, they made a living selling Chinese couplets (two rhymed lines carrying a deeper meaning, a traditional form of Chinese calligraphy, to be hung on a wall during Chinese New Year). While doing this work, they also told people about the persecution and abuse they had experienced.

Mr. Liu was reported on January 24th, 2008. Chen Zhongyun, the uncle of Chen Zhiyou, team leader of the Squad 24 of Farm 8511, was the person who denounced him. Chen Zhiyou then called Chen Xiangjun from the police department to report Mr. Liu.

Chen Xiangjun, the 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) head at Farm 8511, along with Wang Jianhui, Li Bing, and driver Wang, broke into Mr. Liu's home on the evening of January 25th. They handcuffed Mr. Liu and pulled him out of the gate and beat him.

When Ms. Liu Guihua was selling couplets and speaking with people about Falun Gong at Longtou Town on January 25th, someone reported her. Longtou Town Police Station deputy head Guo Lianhai arrested her.

Later on, Mr. Liu Qiliang and Ms. Liu Guihua and two other practitioners were held at Mudanjiang Bureau's Detention Centre located in Lianzhushan Town, Mishan City.

The local police concocted a story about them. Mudanjiang Bureau's Court officials tried these four practitioners three times between April and May 8th. The trials ended in mistrials due to insufficient evidence. A covert trial was held on May 12th. Officials sentenced Mr. Liu Qiliang and Ms. Liu Guihua to four years of imprisonment and the two other practitioners to three years. The four practitioners appealed. Heilongjiang Province General Bureau's Intermediate Court upheld the original sentences on July 16th, although it did not legally have jurisdiction.

While Ms. Liu Guihua was held at the detention centre, she got sick and was sent to Mudanjiang Bureau Hospital. She was diagnosed with fluids in her lungs. The doctor thought that this was life threatening and urged the family to petition for medical parole. The family went to the Domestic Security Division to request a medical parole. The police deceived Ms. Liu Guihua into signing a release from the hospital, while they surreptitiously connected with the prison to send the four practitioners to Mudanjiang Prison and Harbin Women's Prison.

They refused to accept Ms. Liu at the Harbin Women's Prison on August 11th, when officials there discovered her serious health problems. Mudanjiang Bureau's Detention Centre head Wang Ping saw that nobody was willing to accept Ms. Liu, so he had her sent to the Harbin Prison Hospital. The diagnosis: her condition was not life threatening. So, Harbin Women's Prison officials had to accept her. But soon after, the family received a notice of "critically ill." Ms. Liu would vomit right after eating and was diagnosed with heart disease and non-functional lungs. The prison tried to make the family pay the medical expenses, but the family refused to do so. The family demanded an immediate medical parole. The prison personnel had to agree.

Due to the many years of brutal torture, Ms. Liu Guihua suffers from malfunctioning internal organs. Added to her poor living condition, she still has not recovered. She is extremely weak, cannot work, and suffers from pain in her lungs.

Personnel involved:

Chen Xiangjun: 86-467-5085857 (Home), 86-13199425068 (Mobile)
Zhao Zhou: 86-467-5185986
Xin Lianjun, Mudanjiang Bureau's Police Department head: 86-467-5061818 (Home), 86-467-5062508 (Office)
Liu Li, Domestic Security Division head: 86-467-5060395 (Office), 86-467-5062319 (Office), 86-15946676499 (Mobile)

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/2010/1/12/216157.html