Three Practitioners from Longkou City, Shandong Province Sentenced to Forced Labour

On March 20th, practitioners Ms. Chen Yan, Ms. Qu Jianqin and Ms. Liu Changyuan in Longkou City, Shandong Province were arrested by police from Shiliang Township Police Station. They were detained at Zhangjiagou Detention Centre for more than 20 days. They were all sentenced to one and a half years of forced labour.

April 13th is the police chief's reception day. Ms. Chen's family went to him and gave him a letter of appeal. When Chief Shao Aimin saw it was about Falun Gong, he threw it on the desk and said angrily, "Put it over there."

Before Ms. Chen was sentenced to forced labour, her family found two lawyers from Beijing to represent her. Police from the Longkou City Security Team have been preventing the lawyers from meeting with her. They also threatened and intimidated the lawyers.

Police from Shiliang Township Avoid Taking Responsibility for Arrest

On April 4th, Ms. Chen's family went to Shiliang Police Station to ask that she be released on April 7th. Two hours later, they met a guard named Ding Xuehai, who participated in arresting Ms. Chen. Ding said he had been on duty on March 20th. When he received a "report" about Qu Jianqin and Liu Changyuan, he brought them to the police station. However, regarding Ms. Chen, he pretended that he did not know her. The police had taken Ms. Chen's private car to the police station. Ms. Chen’s family went to the police station to ask them to return the car. However, Ding Xuehai refused to admit that they had taken it and said he did not know where Ms. Chen or the car was.

Ms. Chen’s family members submitted an application requesting that they unconditionally release her, and waited for the police station head back at the police station. At around noon, Wang Yanjun came back. Even though he had the authority to do so, he claimed he could do nothing about her case and unreasonably threw Ms. Chen’s family out. He also threatened Ms. Chen’s family: If they did not leave, he would have them arrested. He closed the gate of the police station and would not allow the family to come back in.

Guards from City Security Team Deliberately Make It Difficult for Lawyers to Meet with Victims

In early April, Ms. Chen’s family hired a lawyer to submit legal procedures to the Domestic Security Team and requested to meet with Ms. Chen. However, there was no response. Ms. Chen’s family went to the Domestic Security Team again and requested that her lawyers meet with Ms. Chen and submit the application for her acquittal. An instructor named Wang from the Domestic Security Team came out to pick up the application and promised to allow the lawyers to meet with her.

On the morning of April 8th, two lawyers came to the police department to request a meeting with Ms. Chen. Wang Qi from the Domestic Security Team said they could not prove any relationship between Ms. Chen's client and her. The lawyers pointed out that the legal procedures to request a meeting were complete. After the lawyers' repeated requests, head Wang Zhidong of the Domestic Security Team agreed to arrange the meeting at 3:40 p.m.

At 3:40 p.m., the lawyers went to the police department to attend the meeting, but Wang Zhidong avoided seeing them. At 5:00 p.m., they allowed the lawyers to enter the police department building. They said they asked the deputy chief, and he replied that only people who had a "family relationship" could meet with her. In the end, they refused to allow the lawyers to meet with her.

Both Ms. Chen's lawyers and her family wrote letters of appeal and accused Wang Zhidong, Wang Qi and the others involved in Ms. Chen's case of breaking the law instead of enforcing it. They mailed the letters to the Procuratorate, the Politics and Law Committee and other departments.

Due to pressure from Ms. Chen’s family members, her lawyers and the international community, police from the Domestic Security Team were thrown into a state of panic. On the evening of April 11th, police from the Domestic Security Team sentenced Ms. Chen, Ms. Qu and Ms. Liu to forced labour, and took them to Zibo No. 2 Women's Forced Labour Camp in Shandong Province early on the morning of April 12th. Ms. Chen's family refused to sign the notice of forced labour.

Related Departments:

Longkou City Politics and Law Committee: 86-535-8788702
Domestic Security Team: 86-535-8788746; Team head, Wang Zhidong: 86-13854528286
Head of Longkou City Police Department, Shao Aimin: 86-13953565998
Officers of Shiliang Police Station: Wang Yanjun, Ding Xuehai

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2011/4/19/39268.html