Judges and Police in Wuhan City Retaliate Against Four Elderly Falun Gong Practitioners for Filing an Appeal

Ms. Song Wenxiu and her daughter Li Shihong are both Falun Gong practitioners from the Jiangan District of Wuhan City, Hubei Province. Earlier this year, a group of agents from the Jiangan District Police Department arrested Ms. Song and confiscated the keys to her home. Without any search or arrest warrants, the police ransacked her home and arrested her daughter. Officers Yu Jiming and Wan Baozhu from the Danshuichi Police Station took 1,200 yuan¹ during the raid of their home. Her family went to the police station numerous times to report the missing cash, but the police refused to record and investigate their case.

Jiangan District Court tried Ms. Li Shihong on April 7th, 2010. The case against her was composed of fabricated evidence. Since the local law enforcement violated the law during every step of her arrest and trial, her family decided to appeal her case.

At around 10:00 a.m. on April 30th, 2010, Ms. Wu Bilin, a local practitioner who witnessed Li Shihong's arrest, along with two other elderly practitioners, Ms. Huang Jing and Ms. Sun Jingping, accompanied Ms. Song to Jiangan District Court to deliver an appeal letter. Instead of listening to them, Judge Wu Shanrong called in Hu Shaobin of the Jiangan District 610 Office (an organisation of special agents just for persecuting Falun Gong) and Luo Lin from the Domestic Security Division of the Jiangan District. Hu instructed Luo to inform Houhu Police Station to have someone come and arrest the four practitioners. The police soon arrived to seize them and drove them back to the police station. After parking the vehicle in the courtyard, the police got out themselves but locked the practitioners inside. The four women, all in their 60s, were left in the vehicle under the baking sun until past 4:00 p.m. that afternoon while being denied water, food, and use of the toilet. When the police finally showed up again, they drove them straight to Shenjiaji Brainwashing Centre. The four practitioners all refused to get out, so the police dragged them out and forced them into separate cells in the brainwashing center. Ms. Huang shouted, "Having a belief is not a crime and appealing is not a crime!" The guards at the brainwashing centre then beat her.

Ms. Huang developed very serious illness symptoms around 20 days into her detention. The guards took her to Wuhan No. 161 Hospital, where the doctors found her blood pressure and her heartbeat very high. The doctors warned the guards that she could die at any time. The guards reported her situation to the 610 Office, which reluctantly agreed to her release. After she returned home, the community office director demanded that she report to him every two or three days. In order to avoid further harassment, Ms. Huang was forced to leave home even though she had not yet recovered.

Ms. Wu and Ms. Song also became very ill less than one month after being detained, so they were released, too. Ms. Sun is still in custody.

The police kept calling and text messaging Ms. Huang Jing's husband, demanding to know her whereabouts on June 18th. As a result, she couldn't return home. The police also went to Ms. Song Wenxiu's home that same day, attempting to find out who wrote the appeal letter, but she said nothing.

A group of agents from the Domestic Security Division of the Jiangan District arrested Ms. Wu Bilin on the morning of June 19th ,when she was out running some errands. They ransacked her home that night. According to insiders, the arrest was related to the April 30th appeal that Wu Bilin and Song Wenxiu participated in, and the police were trying to fabricate evidence against her.

Around 8:00 p.m. on June 29th, several policemen arrived at Ms. Huang Jing's home in two vehicles. They banged on the door and shouted. When no one opened the door, they cut the power off to her home.

It is hard to regard the police events above as anything other that retaliation for these women having appealed Ms. Li Shihong's case.

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/2010/7/8/226649.html