Issued by Clearwisdom Net
Content
Witness testimony was submitted in written form and there was no opportunity to cross-examine witnesses.
On August 19, 2009, Ms. Li Chenghua from Fengrun District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, was illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor. She had been protesting her brother's arrest and had been forewarned not to appeal for her brother, Li Chengshun.
Name: Wang Xiangju
Gender: Female
Age: 60s
Address: unknown
Date of Most Recent Arrest: March 31, 2009
Most recent place of detention: Dandong City Detention Center
City: Dandong City
Province: Liaoning
Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wang Xiangju was recently sentenced to four years in prison by the District Court of Yuanbao in Dandong City, Liaoning Province. During the trial, her lawyer questioned the witness on the testimony he provided and made reasonable defense for her. However, he was threatened by the judge, who warned, "The more you defend her, the harsher sentence we'll give her. You have no choice but to have her plead guilty."
During the several months that Ms. Wang was detained by the Chinese authorities, her family overcame many difficulties to try to get her released, but they were ignored and rebuffed by authorities. Desperate, her family hired a lawyer to defend her. When her lawyer tried to gather more evidence to defend her, he was thwarted by Zheng Xiangyang, the Deputy Chief of Jinshan Police Station, Li Xiaomei, the pretrial-section officer of Yuanbao District Police Precinct, and personnel from the District Procuratorate, who refused to provide any developments relating to the case.
On the morning of July 27, 2009, Ms. Wang's lawyer went to the district court to carry out a court-related procedure. Judge Wang and Ma Shuhe threatened him, "The more you defend her, the harsher sentence we'll give her. You have no choice but to have her plead guilty."
Ma put it plainly to the lawyer: "If any counsel attempts to plead on her behalf, we will interrupt him. After three interruptions, he will be expelled from the courtroom. He can only plead on simple matters, and he can do so only if I consent to it." During the trial, Ma repeatedly interrupted the lawyer, greatly hindering the attorney's defense.
The trial was held on July 28, 2009. In the courtroom, Ms. Wang's lawyer defended her by saying, "According to the findings, Ms. Wang's conduct did not constitute a criminal act."
He continued, "First, there is no valid evidence. There is no way to identify the allegation made in the indictment. The witness did not appear in court to be cross-examined. Thus, there is no evidence to determine whether or not it is true and reliable.
"Secondly, the indictment is not applicable to the law. Even if the facts stated in the indictment are true, there is no evidence that proves that the defendant did violate the 300th article of the criminal code."
Ms. Wang raised two objections in the final statement: 1) She wanted to cross-examine the witness. Otherwise, she believed that one rough testimony was not sufficient to clarify the situation. She said that if she was convicted based on this testimony, she would object. 2) She was not told which law she had broken. The prosecutor did not explain this to her clearly.
On the day of the trial, the court didn't make any judgment. However, the District Court of Yuanbao recently announced that Ms. Wang was sentenced to four years in prison.
Since the Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Wang has been repeatedly arrested and sent to jail because of her unwillingness to give up the practice. In March 2000, she was arrested by officers from Xingdong Police Station for practicing the Falun Gong exercises outdoors. Her house was subsequently ransacked and she was held in a detention center for one month. In August 2001, Ms. Wang was turned in by her neighbors for telling them, "Falun Dafa is good." She was later arrested and taken to a detention center for five days. In August 2002, she was turned in while she was handing out truth-clarification materials in public by a person with the last name of "Wang." She was later arrested and her house was ransacked. On August 30, she was taken to a detention center. Shortly after, she was sentenced to five years in prison and taken to the women's prison in Liaoning Province. During her detention, she was repeatedly persecuted by officials who tried to "transform" her, but to no avail. In August 2007, Ms. Wang was released after her prison term expired. Because she was not "transformed," she was repeatedly harassed by her street committee and the police department. They tapped her phones, attempted to track her whereabouts, and put tremendous pressure on her family.
Ms. Li Chenghua Sentenced to Forced Labor for Appealing on Behalf of Her Brother
On August 19, 2009, Ms. Li Chenghua from Fengrun District, Tangshan City, Hebei Province, was illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor. She had been protesting her brother's arrest and had been forewarned not to appeal for her brother, Li Chengshun.
Mr. Li Chengshun, 46, used to be a security guard at Tangshan Trolley Bus, Inc. He has been persecuted numerous times because he practices Falun Gong. He was arrested again on February 26, 2009, and sent to the 1st Forced Labor Camp of Hebei Province (also called Kaiping Forced Labor Camp) on March 27, 2009. When his employer unilaterally terminated his work contract, his family hired a lawyer and brought the case to the Labor Committee, attempting to protect Mr. Li's legal right to work.
On August 11, 2009, his family and lawyer went to the court to appeal to the defendant, Tangshan Trolley Bus, Inc., who sent two representatives. During the hearing, the Labor Committee wanted the two sides to talk to each other and solve the problem between themselves, but the bus company insisted on having the court mediate. A decision is expected to take two months.
The person that initiated the Mr. Li's dismissal was Hou Baofeng, the CCP committee's vice secretary and also the chairman of the union of Tangshan Trolley Bus, Inc. After Mr. Li was sentenced to forced labor for practicing Falun Gong, she ordered the termination of his contract. After the lawyer and family appealed in court for Li's legal rights, Hou got embarrassed and began to persecute the sister, Li Chenghua, who had been appealing for her brother.
Li Chenghua
Li Chengshun
The persecution of Mr. Li Chengshun
Li Chengshun, born in April 1963, used to worked for Tangshan Trolley Bus, Inc. He began to practice Falun Gong in October 1994 and was the first practitioner sent to a detention center in Tangshan City because of his belief. On July 23, 1999, he was at work when his company security department cooperated with the Tangshan City Xin District 610 Office to arrest him. He was in the Tangshan Detention Center for 15 days on a trumped-up charge of "interfering with the law and disturbing the social order."
In December 2000, his wife, Yan Xiufeng, was arrested and sent to a forced brainwashing session involving torture. The perpetrators included the staff where she worked, the Tangshan Xin District Food Bureau, and local 610 Office personnel. Shortly after, their home was raided, personal belongings were confiscated, and Mr. Li was forced to leave home to avoid persecution and subsequently became homeless. The local police and the security department staff frequently monitored his house, hoping to catch him at home, while other security staff searched railroad stations and even sent people to Beijing's Tiananmen Square to look for him. When he went to his father-in-law's home, he was arrested and taken to a brainwashing session inside Tangshan's Spin and Weave College.
In December 2001, when Mr. Li went to the home of fellow practitioner An Zhenjie, the police from Xin District and Fengrun County arrested them and raided the home. While he was detained, he began a hunger strike, and five days later he was released to his employer.
On March 5, 2002, when he was at work, the director, Wu Donglai, asked him to come to the office. He was then ambushed by four officers from Kaiping Police Precinct, and his home was raided again. After he was taken to the police station, they began to question him using torture. He was then held in the 1st Detention Center for over eight months. Chief Chen Yongwen of Kaiping Police Precinct extorted 10,000 yuan from Mr. Li's family and released him to his employer.
When the 2008 Olympic torch passed through Tangshan, CCP officials intensified the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, and so Li Chengshun was forced to leave home again.
On February 26, 2009, he was at his friend's home when officers from Kaiping Police Precinct and Majiagou Malu Police Station broke into the home and arrested him. He was taken to Malu Police Station, and a digital camera and 3,000 yuan on him were confiscated. Five policemen in the station beat and shocked him with electric batons. He was covered with wounds and did not recover for four weeks. On March 27, 2009, he was sentenced to two years of forced labor taken to the 1st Forced Labor Camp of Hebei Province for two years.
April 7, 2009, was family visiting day. When his family and lawyer went to visit him, the labor camp officials put forth all sorts of reasons to not let them see Li Chengshun. After some pressure they finally let the family visit him, but they did not permit his lawyer to see him..
On June 10, 2009, his lawyer went to visit him again. The guard refused to let him visit, saying, "There is an order that you cannot visit him." The lawyer asked, "Where is the order? Is there any documentation?" The guard replied, "No documentation--it is a verbal order." In order to verify the fact, the lawyer made several phone calls to the authorities, but no one answered.
The persecution of Ms. Li Chenghua
Li Chenghua, 37, was working at Jidong Pharmacy Factory before she was sent to a forced labor camp in 2000 because she refused to give up Falun Gong. After her sentence ended, she made a living making popcorn.
On August 5, 2009, around 7 p.m., a plainclothes police officer went to her popcorn booth and asked for a flyer on the persecution Falun Gong. She told him the facts about Falun Gong and gave him two flyers. Shortly after, seven to eight officer took her to their van. They raided her home around 8 p.m., took two Falun Gong CDs, and took her to Fengrun Detention Center.
On August 19, 2009, Ms. Li Chenghua was sentenced to two years of forced labor and sent to the 1st Forced Labor Camp of Hebei Province.