(Minghui.org) A 50-year-old resident of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, was sentenced to four years and fined 20,000 yuan on November 7, 2024, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Huang Shaobo was arrested during a police sweep of local Falun Gong practitioners on September 15, 2023. She stood trial at the Xiangyang District Court on October 11, 2024 and was convicted on November 7. She filed an appeal and is currently awaiting the result at the Jiamusi City Detention Center.
Prior to her latest sentencing, Ms. Huang previously served a three-year jail term for her faith. After she was released in 2004, she was fired from her job and her household registration was canceled. The police also refused to issue her the next-generation ID that took effect that year. She applied for it numerous times in the years that followed but she was always rejected. Without a household registration and ID, she was unable to work full-time jobs in the past two decades and also encountered numerous difficulties just living a normal life.
After her latest arrest in September 2023, the police could not find her in their database and secretly reinstated her household registration the next day. A deputy police chief accused her of failing to apply for the next-generation ID when it first came out in 2004 and her family produced an application form she last filled out in 2012. It was marked, “rejected.” The chief had nothing to say. Ms. Huang still does not have an ID.
Ms. Huang was arrested after 6 a.m. on September 15, 2023, while she was grocery shopping. The arresting officers from the Baowei Police Station and the Xiangyang District Domestic Security Division took her home and confiscated her computer and cash. They put her in criminal detention at the Jiamusi City Detention Center. but she refused to sign the paperwork.
Later that day, the police arrested her husband, Mr. Wang Shiyong, also a Falun Gong practitioner, and her brother and his wife. Mr. Wang was released on bail after he was interrogated. Ms. Huang’s brother and sister-in-law, who do not practice Falun Gong, were also interrogated and later released unconditionally.
Ms. Huang’s husband submitted a request in mid-October 2023, asking that the confiscated items be returned and to not issue a formal arrest warrant for her. He called the Xiangyang District Procuratorate on December 22, 2023 to inquire about her case status. The receptionist refused to directly answer the question on the grounds that Falun Gong was a cult (even though no law in China criminalizes the practice). He said he’d only talk to Ms. Huang’s lawyer. The lawyer called and was told that the procuratorate received the case and prosecutor Li Lifeng was in charge.
Ms. Huang’s parents, both almost 80, submitted a request to review the case file and to visit her at the detention center. Prosecutor Li demanded to see proof that the couple had no criminal records, although by law anyone can visit a detainee. The Baowei Police Station refused to issue such proof and referred them to their local community director, who sent them back to the procuratorate. After many days of run-around, the couple was finally issued a “no criminal record” certificate.
Prosecutor Li, however, said she still needed the couple to sign a confidentiality agreement before she allowed them to review their daughter’s case file. They did but were still made to wait a few days before gaining access to the case file. After going over everything, the couple submitted requests to have their daughter released on bail, but prosecutor Li did not respond.
Ms. Huang’s parents later submitted more requests to Li, urging her not to indict their daughter and to exclude prosecution evidence illegally gathered by the police. Li refused to accept the materials or include the documents in Ms. Huang’s case file.
On January 17, 2024, Ms. Huang’s non-lawyer defender (it’s not clear whether it was her husband, parents, or another relative) went to the detention center to visit her. Even though he had the procuratorate’s approval to represent Ms. Huang, the guards initially barred him and made him wait outside. He was eventually allowed to see Ms. Huang after the detention center director, Liu Hongwei, intervened.
Ms. Huang said she never confessed to any crime and the interrogation records against her were all fabricated by the police. She also said she never had banknotes bearing Falun Gong information in her home to begin with, but the police put paper bills they found elsewhere, in the items confiscated from her home, to use as prosecution evidence against her.
The family defender then approached prosecutor Li and detailed the police violation of legal procedures. He requested that she return the case to the police. Li eventually returned the case to the Baowei Police Station on January 19, 2024.
Ms. Huang’s family submitted separate requests to the Xiangyang District Police Department and its supervising Jiamusi City Police Department in late November 2024. They asked the district police department to explain why its subordinate Baowei Police Station canceled her household registration in 2004 and repeatedly rejected her requests to have the next-generation ID. The open information request to the city police department sought to know which legal basis the agency had to validate and authenticate the police-supplied prosecution evidence when by law only a third, independent agency is authorized to verify prosecution evidence.
Neither police department responded after the 20-day statutory response window expired. Ms. Huang’s family then filed an administrative lawsuit against the Jiamusi City Police Department on January 30, 2024. They also filed complaints against it with various government agencies, including the Jiamusi Municipal Procuratorate, the Jiamusi Municipal Government and other relevant departments at all levels. They demanded that these agencies investigate the city police department for failing to address their open information request.
Days later, on February 2, 2024, the family applied for administrative reconsideration with the Xiangyang District Government, requesting that it discipline the Xiangyang District Police Department for failing to respond to their open information request. They also filed complaints against the district police department with various government agencies.
The Baowei Police Station called the family on February 6, 2024, and invited them to have a talk. They went and were warmly received by deputy chief Yan Baiming. Yan, however, never intended to address their concerns but sought to have them rescind their administrative reconsideration application. He argued that it would be no use to discipline the officers who canceled Ms. Huang’s household registration back in 2004. He also alleged that Ms. Huang never applied for a new ID back then. Her family immediately produced the form she filled out in 2012 for a new ID. Yan had nothing to say.
The police found nothing illegal on Ms. Huang’s computer and her family urged them to drop the case. The family submitted their formal request on January 31, 2024, but Men Maosheng, captain of Xiangyang District Domestic Security Division, taunted them, “You think we’ll just drop the case if you say so?” The police resubmitted the case to the procuratorate on February 29, 2024.
Ms. Huang was indicted at an unknown date and she stood trial at the Xiangyang District Court on October 11, 2024. Only her mother was allowed to attend the hearing because a security guard lied to her other family members and said the gallery was filled to capacity.
Ms. Huang’s non-lawyer family defender requested that judge Zhang Weining and prosecutor Li be recused. Zhang immediately passed the written recusal request to Li, who glanced at it before saying, “request rejected.”
During the trial, no prosecution evidence was cross-examined and no prosecution witness was in sight. Li failed to present any legal basis to justify her allegations against Ms. Huang. She claimed that Ms. Huang used banknotes bearing Falun Gong information in a park and a grocery store. In fact Ms. Huang never had money with Falun Gong messages. The police put these banknotes they found elsewhere, in the pile of items they confiscated from her home.
It was clear Li was unable to answer questions from Ms. Huang, her lawyer and family defender in terms of what evidence she had to prove that Ms. Huang broke the law. At one point she said she couldn’t find her witness. Judge Zhang was visibly annoyed and reprimanded her, “What nonsense are you talking about? Do you have prosecution evidence or not?”
Ms. Huang testified in her own defense and recounted how she was repeatedly targeted for practicing Falun Gong, which she took up in 1997. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong in October 1999 and was arrested. She was held in a cell together with more than 20 other people. They had to eat, sleep and relieve themselves in the crowded space. She was released more than 100 days later. Her family had to pay 5,000 yuan before they were allowed to pick her up.
After another arrest on an unknown date, Ms. Huang was sentenced to three years in January 2001, just six months after she got married. She was admitted to the Heilongjiang Province Women’s Prison in 2002 and endured horrific torture there. After she was released in 2004, her employer did not allow her to resume work and threatened to have her arrested again. The local Baowei Police Station refused to process her application for a new ID and canceled her household registration. Both documents are required to get full-time jobs.
Ms. Huang said the police reinstated her household registration the day after her latest arrest on September 15, 2023. Her older brother was summoned to the police station to deliver their old household registration, which the police used to add her to the family’s new household registration.
Despite Ms. Huang’s account of the persecution she endured, prosecutor Li recommended a 4-5 year prison sentence and a 20,000-yuan fine. Judge Zhang said he’d work with a collegial panel to mete out the sentence later on.
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