Ms. Li Lanying, Sentenced to Four Years of Imprisonment, Now in Heijongjiang Province Women's Prison

Ms. Li Lanying, a 54-year-old Falun Gong practitioner, lives in Min'an Village, Wujia Town, Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province. After she was sentenced to four years in prison, she appealed twice without success and is currently detained at Heilongjiang Province Women's Prison. Her husband, Gao Guang'en, who had been arrested many times and was sent to a labour camp for practising Falun Gong, passed away in January 2006.

During Ms. Li's detention at the Shuangcheng Detention Centre, over 400 village residents in Wujia Town, as well as nearby places, signed a petition and added their fingerprints requesting her release.

Ms. Li used to have many illnesses, and her husband was once unable to work due to a heart condition. Due to their illnesses, combined with a difficult life, they once thought about committing suicide. Later, they fortunately heard about Falun Gong and began to practise. Within several months, the illnesses, which had bothered them for many years, disappeared. They both were very grateful for the benefits they received physically as well as mentally.

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong, Mr. Gao Guang'en was arrested, had money extorted from him, was harassed, and his home was ransacked. At 6:00 p.m. on May 21st, 2002, seven or eight police officers, along with deputy head Li of the Wujia Town Police Station, went to his home and arrested him. The police incarcerated Mr. Gao at the Second Detention Centre in Shuangcheng City. Several months later, after Mr. Gao had been brutally tortured, he was taken to Changlinzi Forced Labour Camp. He was held in this camp for one year and inhumanly tortured. In the end, he lost consciousness and fell on the floor and afterwards was unable to walk. Labour camp officials had no choice but to tell his family to pick him up and take him home. Yet, the local police often visited his home and harassed Mr. Gao. On the morning of January 5th, 2006, Mr. Gao collapsed and died at is workplace.

On September 9th, 2009, when Ms. Li Lanying was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution and telling people the facts about Falun Gong in Shuangjing Village, Zhang Dahai, the head of the village; and Wang Jun, Shuangjiang Village Party secretary, reported her to the police. Several officers from the Wujia Town Police Station, including station chief Xu Kai, Yang Zhongwei, and Wang Changqi, arrived and arrested her. They then went to her home and confiscated a computer, printer, and other personal valuable items. The police took Ms. Li to the Second Detention Centre in Harbin (also known as Yazijuan) and incarcerated her.

On September 28th, 2009, Ms. Li's family went to the Wujia Town Police Station to request her release, since she was innocent of any wrongdoing. Yang Zhongwei, the deputy head of that police station, had a bad attitude towards them and said, "You can go wherever you want to appeal."

Tong Huiqun from the Domestic Security Division in Shuangcheng City and officer Xu Kai from the Wujia Town Police Station fabricated "evidence" and submitted it to the Procuratorate three times, attempting to prosecute Ms. Li. It was rejected the first two times, but the third time, Zhang Hailong from the Shuangcheng City Procuratorate, accepted it and reported this fabricated case to the Shuangcheng City Court.

On December 2nd, 2009, the Shuangcheng Court held a hearing for Ms. Li. When her family went to the courthouse the day before to find out the date and time of the hearing, they were told that no information was available. After asking many people, they finally discovered the details half an hour before the hearing began. When Ms. Li's family arrived in court, they noticed that she was skinny and wore only a pair of sandals despite the cold winter. It was later confirmed that Ms. Li had been on a hunger strike to protest the persecution at the detention centre. Guards had force-fed her many times and said, "We will force-feed you every day if you still continue to practise [Falun Gong]." Because of this torture, Ms. Li had high blood pressure and was very weak.

The entire hearing lasted less than 20 minutes, with only the following staff present: Chief Judge Wu Haomin, Judge Zheng He, record keepers Xu Bingquan and Zhao Yu, and Prosecutor Zhang Hailong. The chief judge and prosecutor asked a few questions as a token gesture and the hearing was then concluded.

After the hearing, Ms. Li's family went to the Shuangcheng Detention Centre to visit her. Personnel from the Procuratorate residing at the detention centre said, "We cannot let you visit her, otherwise, our efforts to refute her appeal will be in vain."

On December 9th, 2009, the Shuangcheng City Court sentenced Ms. Li to four years of imprisonment.

Ms. Li's family and local practitioners spoke out for justice to many people, and, in the end, an attorney with a sense of justice agreed to appeal on her behalf. Shuangcheng Court tried to keep the attorney out of the picture but had to give up after persistent efforts by her family and being faced with solid facts.

Through the attorney, Ms. Li asked her daughter, Gao Yun, to appeal to the Harbin Intermediate Court on her behalf. Ms. Gao Yun went to the Wujia Town Police Station to get the documents she needed, but Yang Zhongwei, deputy chief of the station, tried everything possible to stop her. Because Ms. Gao persistently requested the documents, Yang reluctantly provided them to her.

However, Wang Yutang and other officials from the Harbin Intermediate Court ignored the voices of the village residents of Shuancheng City, and, without any legal basis, upheld the original, erroneous verdict. Even though Ms. Li appealed the verdict, she was sentenced to four years of imprisonment, and is currently detained in the Heilongjiang Women's Prison.

Related article: http://clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2009/12/12/113066.html

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2010/1/31/217297.html