(Minghui.org) The Wanghua District Court in Fushun City, Liaoning Province, ruled on May 31, 2022, to dismiss a lawsuit brought up by the Fushun City Social Security Office against a local Falun Gong practitioner.
Ms. Liu Shaojun was arrested on April 24, 2018, while visiting a friend who also practices Falun Gong. Falun Gong is a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Back on December 12, 2018, she was sentenced to 2.5 years and fined 5,000 yuan.
While she was serving time in Liaoning Province Women’s Prison, her family tried to visit her five times, but they were turned away each time. They were told that as long as Ms. Liu didn’t renounce Falun Gong, they wouldn’t be allowed to see her.
Ms. Liu was tortured constantly for refusing to give up her faith. The inmates often made her stand or squat for long hours. Sometimes she was handcuffed to the heating pipes. She was also denied use of the restroom, deprived of sleep, beaten, and force-fed unknown drugs. She developed high blood pressure and a rapid heartbeat as a result.
While she was incarcerated, the Fushun City Social Security Office suspended her pension in May 2020. After she was released on October 23, 2020, the social security office demanded that she return the 71,752 yuan in pension funds issued to her between April 2018 and May 2020 while she was in prison.
When Ms. Liu refused to comply, the social security office filed a lawsuit against her with the Wanghua District Court.
A Wanghua District Court judge called Ms. Liu on December 28, 2021, to tell her that the social security office was seeking to settle the case with her in private. If she repaid the 71,752 yuan, they would withdraw the lawsuit.
Ms. Liu replied that she had looked up the Chinese labor law and found no legal basis for the social security bureau to suspend her pension or to require her to return the funds she had already been paid. She refused to accept the terms and insisted that the judge rule in her favor.
The Wanghua District Court rejected the social security office’s lawsuit on May 31, 2022, ruling that it was not appropriate for the agency to sue Ms. Liu over her pension in a civil litigation, since pension issues should be handled by the labor and social security administration, not the courts.
The social security office has now filed an appeal, which Ms. Liu said she would continue to fight to defend her right to her hard-earned pension.
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