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Chapter 6 Procedure and Prosecution: Flying in the Face of “Rule of Law”

TABLE OF CONTENTS

6.1 DENIAL OF ANY LEGAL REPRESENTATION
6.2 SENTENCED TO LABOR CAMPS WITHOUT TRAIL 
6.3 UNFAIR TRIALS AND SENTENCES OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS
6.4 DISAPPEARANCE OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS

6.1 DENIAL OF ANY LEGAL REPRESENTATION

6.1.1 Falun Gong practitioners not allowed to plead not guilty
6.1.2 Falun Gong book publishers expected to be jailed for up to five years
6.1.3 Coordinators of Falun Gong practice sites will face prosecution
6.1.4 Falun Gong practitioners in China not allowed to consult lawyers

6.2 SENTENCED TO LABOR CAMPS WITHOUT TRAIL 

6.2.1 Liu Tao sent to labor camp
6.2.2 Chinese family petitions over a very unjust case
6.2.3 College classmate of Chinese vice president sentenced to two years of forced labor
6.2.4 Practitioners sent to labor camps for having gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong
6.2.5 Falun Gong practitioners were put on trial
6.2.6 A practitioner sentenced with one year of forced labor “education” for reading “Zhuan Falun” 
6.2.7 Wang’s son was sentenced to one year and a half of forced labor education
6.2.8 Sixteen practitioners sent to labor camps because of their appeal for Falun Gong
6.2.9 More than twenty practitioners sentenced to one to three years of forced labor “education” 
6.2.10 A professor sentenced to 3 years of forced labor
6.2.11 Practitioners given 3 years of forced labor “education” without a trial
6.2.12 Practitioners who signed an open letter to President Jiang were given forced labor “education” 
6.2.13 Three practitioners sent to forced labor camps because they had gone to Beijing to appeal
6.2.14 A party member sentenced to 3 years in forced labor camp for his belief in Falun Gong
6.2.15 Practitioners in Zhejiang Province sent to forced labor camp
6.2.16 Twenty six practitioners sent to a labor camp
6.2.17 Practitioners detained in Changchun were forced to work 18 to 19 hours everyday
6.2.18 Liu Juhua from Tangshan sentenced to 3 years of labor education
6.2.19 Fourteen practitioners in Shijiazhuang sent to labor camps 
6.2.20 Thirty five practitioners in Jinzhou sent to labor camps without trials 
6.2.21 A practitioner sent to a labor camp for practicing exercise on Tiananmen Square
6.2.22 Thirty Falun Gong practitioners in Jiamusi sent to labor camps
6.2.23 China sends twelve Falun Gong members to camps
6.2.24 Twelve Falun Gong members sentenced to labor camp
6.2.25 Eight practitioners sentenced to forced labor for practicing the meditation exercises at home 
6.2.26 Thirty five people sent to labor camps in the northern part of Hebei Province in the past ten days 
6.2.27 Forty practitioners in Jinzhou sentenced to 2 to 3 years of labor education without trials

6.2.28 Nine Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced to labor education
6.2.29 Five hundred Falun Gong practitioners sentenced
6.2.30 Chinese crackdown extends to local Falun Gong leaders
6.2.31 A high school teacher sentenced to a year in labor camp
6.2.32 Five Falun Gong practitioners sentenced to labor camp without trial
6.2.33 2 practitioners in Changchun sentenced to one year in labor camp
6.2.34 China sentenced five practitioners to labor camp without trial or notification of relatives

6.3 UNFAIR TRIALS AND SENTENCES OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS

6.3.1 Key contact person of Falun Gong in Dalian secretly sentenced to 9 years in jail
6.3.2 Practitioners in Shijiazhuang were sentenced
6.3.3 Practitioners in Chengdu were sentenced before the Chinese new year
6.3.4 China sentenced practitioners to 2 years in jail because they exchanged experiences with others
6.3.5 A professor in Sichuan University was sentenced
6.3.6 A Beijing court sentenced two sisters to six and seven years in prison
6.3.7 A practitioner from Zhejiang Province detained in the Shiliping labor camp
6.3.8 The trial of 22 practitioners on January 28
6.3.9 A practitioner sentenced to one year in labor camps for joining the group practice
6.3.10 China begins key Falun Gong trial, security tight
6.3.11 A major organizer of the Falun Gong news release in Beijing sentenced to 12 years in jail
6.3.12 Air Force General sentenced 17 years in prison because of practicing Falun Gong
6.3.13 The Court in Shijiazhuang put Ms. Liang Yening on a show trial
6.3.14 The contact person of Falun Gong in Wuhan sentenced to eight years in prison
6.3.15 A government official was sentenced four years in jail
6.3.16 China sentenced an assistant professor at Xinxiang Medical College to four years in prison
6.3.17 Falun Gong leaders jailed for up to 18 years
6.3.18 Stealthy trial sentences four Falun Gong practitioners to avoid international scrutiny
6.3.19 Practitioners tortured for attending the trial
6.3.20 An Inside Story: On the trial of “Publishing Falun Gong Materials” in Wuhan, China
6.3.21 China prevented practitioners from auditing the trial of Falun Gong contact people
6.3.22 “Auditing” was changed to “detention”
6.3.23 Beijing trial postponed, attendants arrested
6.3.24 Falun Gong gathering delays trial
6.3.25 The court put Gu Zhiyi, a retired senior lecturer of Tax School on show trial
6.3.26 Four Falun Gong contact persons sentenced up to 12 years in prison
6.3.27 China jails first group of Falun Gong contact people
6.3.28 China has charged a student with spreading information on the Falun Gong on the Internet
6.3.29 Ten Falun Gong practitioners in Shijiazhuang were due to be trailed
6.3.30 A Chinese policemen who put his loyalty to the Falun Gong has been detained and charged
6.3.31 Chongqing Falun Gong contact person was charged
6.3.32 Falun Gong contact person in Shijiazhuang “officially” arrested
6.3.33 China’s Rule of Law
6.3.34 Four key members of the Falun Gong have been arrested in China
6.3.35 Appealing from a mother---Save my daughter
6.3.36 Song Yuesheng and six other Falun Gong practitioners now on trial
6.3.37 Falun Gong contact person in Qingdao will be put on trial

6.4 DISAPPEARANCE OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS

6.4.1 Ten Falun Gong practitioners from the Hospital of Shengli Oil Field were arrested
6.4.2 Twenty practitioners arrested when practicing exercises

6.4.3 Xu Yanfeng was arrested for continuing to practice Falun Gong
6.4.4 Wang ZhiHui from Jinzhou was arrested when attempting to appeal to the central authorities
6.4.5 A woman disappeared after she spoke with a Falun Gong practitioner in US on the phone
6.4.6 A Falun Gong contact person detained, her whereabouts is unknown
6.4.7 “China cracks down on Falun Gong before anniversary”
6.4.8 A Falun Gong practitioner disappeared

6.5 ILLEGAL DETENTIONS OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS

6.5.1 Practitioners in Linyi illegally detained, fined and denied salaries
6.5.2 Practitioners arrested by the head of village, beaten up and denied access to the toilet
6.5.3 Prolonged detention without any reason
6.5.4 Four practitioners arrested for disclosing Zhao Jinhua’s death to international community
6.5.5 Two hundred practitioners are detained in Changchun
6.5.6 A Falun Gong practitioner was tricked into detention
6.5.7 Practitioners are put into “secret detention centers” without legal reasons
6.5.8 More than 150 practitioners have been detained since September 30th in Huludao
6.5.9 Any gathering of more than 3 practitioners is illegal

6.1 Denial of Any Legal Representation

6.1.1 Falun Gong practitioners not allowed to plead not guilty

Message received: January 26, 2000 [AP]

Victims: Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: P.R. China

Description:

The trial of Li Jianhui, a Falun Gong contact person in Shenzhen, was postponed by the Chinese Communist Regime to January 24 because Mr. Li’s attorneys insisted on pleading not guilty.

The 2 attorneys hired by Mr. Li Jianhui were not Falun Gong practitioners. After they studied the case, both of them decided to plead not guilty for him. However, 2 days before the trial, the Chinese Communist authorities imposed great pressures on them, forcing the cancellation of their contract with Mr. Li. The trial could thus not start as scheduled. The Court appointed another lawyer for Mr. Li.

According to the Chinese “law of criminal law suits” and “law of lawyers,” the defendant can hire their own attorney. The defendant’s attorney has the right to defend independently. The defendant’s attorney can plead guilty or not guilty for the defendant, and this should not be interfered by any judicial or administrative branch. Apparently, this is not the case when dealing with Falun Gong practitioners. AP also reported that the Chinese police detained nine Hong Kong journalists who tried to cover the trial of Mr. Li.

6.1.2 Falun Gong book publishers expected to be jailed for up to five years

Message received: September 23, 1999

Victims: Falun Gong book publishers and practitioners

Location of incident: Mainland, China

Description:

At least 10 people involved in the publication of Falun Gong books have been arrested, the Information Center of Human Rights & Democratic Movement in China said in a statement on September 23. They would go on trial in October and each was expected to be jailed for up to five years, it said.

A total of 50 people involved in publication are now being detained by Chinese authorities; some of them are expected to receive jail sentences of at least 10 years, a Hong Kong publication center said.

6.1.3 Coordinators of Falun Gong practice sites will face prosecution.

Message received: August 2, 1999 [Reuters]

Victims: Coordinators of local Falun Gong practice sites

Location of incident: P.R. China

Description:

This Tuesday, Chinese government said for the first time that the key members of Falun Gong spiritual movement would face prosecution.

6.1.4 Falun Gong practitioners in China not allowed to consult lawyers

Message received: July 29, 1999

Victims: Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Beijing

Description:

The Beijing Bureau of Justice issued a notice on July 29, setting a procedure for reporting all requests of consultation and legal representation related to Falun Gong. The notice emphasized the requirement of all units, including all attorney offices and Bureaus of Justice in all counties and districts, to immediately report, tally and record all requests for consultation and legal representation related to Falun Gong. The notice stipulated that no contract for legal representation may be signed prior approval by the Office of Legal Administration. When litigants come to any attorney’s office for consultation services, the contents of all the answers have to match the ones from the Central Government. Cui Yuqi, a Beijing officer from Bureau of Justice has confirmed the existence of the notice, and its implementation in the collection of statistical information. Falun Gong practitioners may not find their own lawyers; the government denies them Chinese Constitutional rights.

Content of the notice issued by Beijing Bureau of Justice:

All legal consultations in regards to Falun Gong must be reported promptly.

Particular requirements are:

1. A lawyer may not have dealings with a client involving Falun Gong issues. The case should be reported to the Regulation Section (Phone: 63408078) and it can be decided only after reporting.

2. In the event that a client requests consultation involving Falun Gong issues, all attorney offices must conform to the law and be strictly in accordance with the tone of the Central Government.

3. All recent consultations on Falun Gong issues must be documented and faxed immediately to the Regulation Section on or before August 2nd, 1999.

Regulation Section, Beijing Bureau of Justice. Fax: 63408034

6.2 Sentenced to Labor Camps Without Trail

6.2.1 Liu Tao sent to labor camp

Message received: March 1, 2000

Victim: Liu Tao

Location of incident: Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, 

Description:

Liu Tao, a practitioner from Shenzhen, went back to China after a business trip to India in last August. The police confiscated all the Falun Gong materials that he brought back from India. Later, because he went to Beijing to appeal and practiced Falun Gong exercise in public areas, he was detained number of times. In last November, he was given a sentence of three years of forced labor. Mr. Liu’s parents have not received the original copy of the sentence even after repeated requests.

6.2.2 Chinese family petitions over a very unjust case

Message received: February 29, 2000 [The IRISH TIMES]

Victims:

1. Li Xaiomei
2. Li Xiaobing

Location of incident: China

Description:

Two retired cadres of the Chinese Communist Party have petitioned the State Council, the Procurator’s Office, the Supreme Court, the Municipal Court, the People’s Congress and individual Party leaders in Beijing over what they claim is a serious injustice done to their daughters. The case they present raises disturbing questions about the way the Public Security Bureau in China uses the court system to administer harsh punishment to people apparently innocent under Chinese law of any crime. It comes on the eve of a visit to Beijing tomorrow by the UN Commissioner of Human Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson, to sign a technical accord on improving legal procedures in China.

They claim that their daughters, Ms Li Xiaomei, 46 years old, and Ms Li Xiaobing, 48 years old, who ran a bookshop in Beijing, were arrested, detained without charge for 94 days, then after a further three months detention sentenced to long jail terms, for selling books and other materials promoting Falun Gong.

But as the petition points out, their daughters were arrested before Falun Gong was banned as a cult last July. Moreover the books at the time were not illegal. They had been published by the Chinese Broadcasting Publishing House, bore official bar codes from the National Publication Administration Bureau, and one for a time was on the list of 10 best sellers in the Beijing Youth Daily. The sequence of events as described in the China petition is as follows. In April, followers of Falun Gong, which was not then banned, demonstrated in large numbers outside government headquarters in Beijing over the beating of some members by police in Tianjin. The government was outraged and began to denounce the movement, whose exiled leader, Mr. Li Hongzhi, lives in New York and claims spiritual powers. The two women were arrested on July 20th and their possessions, including savings accounts, fax machine, VCR, tape recorder and mobile phone, were confiscated. Falun Gong was not banned until two days later, on July 22nd. The sisters were not allowed access to family or lawyers. No one knew where they were held. On October 22nd their parents, Mr. Li Yi and Ms. Nie Zhen, were told they had been charged with illegally selling banned books and other Falun Gong materials and making an illegal turnover which “seriously disturbed the proper marketing order”.

On January 28th Ms. Li Xaiomei was sentenced to seven years in prison and Ms. Li Xiaobing, who was married a week before the arrest, six years, at a court hearing in Beijing which the parents were not allowed to attend. Both were fined heavily. “Most of the old cadres suffered the same experience during the Great Cultural Revolution (1965-1975),” stated the couple, who have been staunch communists all their lives.

“In order to prevent the same thing from happening again after the Great Cultural Revolution, the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China formulated the related instructions so that it would not be allowed secretly to detail people again.” They had petitioned the government, because “this is obviously a very unjust case,” Ms. Nie Zhen said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Beijing. “If the Chinese government do not return the fairness and the innocence to my daughters, we hope the international human rights organizations would help us correct this problem.”

6.2.3 College classmate of Chinese vice president sentenced to two years of forced labor

Message received: February 29, 2000

Victim: Zhang Mengye, an associate professor from the Guangdong School of Electricity, and his wife

Location of incident: Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

Description:

Last April, at a Tsinghua alumni gathering, Zhang Mengye, an associate professor from the Guangdong School of Electricity, told his story of getting rid of severe lung disease by practicing Falun Gong to all his college classmates including Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao.

Since the Chinese government started to crackdown on Falun Gong in July 21, Professor Zhang and his wife have gone to Beijing many times to appeal for Falun Gong. Each time, however, they got arrested and escorted back before they were able to tell the truth to the authorities. They have been sentenced to two years of forced labor recently.

6.2.4 Practitioners sent to labor camps for having gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong

Message received: February 18, 2000

Victims:

1. Ye Heping, from Guiyang
2. Tang Wenping, from Guiyang
3. Hu Dali, from Xiuwen
4. Deng Tianping, from Xiuwen

Location of incident: Guizhou Province

Practitioners from Guiyang, Ye Heping and Tang Wenping, and practitioners from Xiuwen, Hu Dali and Deng Tianping, were sent to labor camps for having gone to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. Meanwhile, Ye Heping has been on hunger strike for seven days. He is now being force-fed. He looks well.

6.2.5 Falun Gong practitioners were put on trial

Message received: February 18, 2000

Victims:

1. Li Houzhuang
2. Li Houzhuang’s daughter
3. Chen Huifang

Location of incident: Wushu of Xinjiang Province

Description:

Practitioners from Wushu of Xinjiang Province, Li Houzhuang and her daughter, Chen Huifang, got officially arrested after having been detained for four and a half months. Ms. Chen is very weak now. The doctor said she was dying. Ms. Li’s condition is also not good. However, their family members were not allowed to visit them. They were taken away from the hospital. It was said that they were put on trial on February 14, 2000.

6.2.6 A practitioner sentenced with one year of forced labor “education” for reading “Zhuan Falun”

Victim: Zhang Aili, female

Location of incident: Yingmenkou in Chengdu, Sichuan Province

Description:

Ms. Zhang Aili, a practitioner from Yingmenkou in Chengdu was sentenced with one year of forced labor “education” for reading “Zhuan Falun” (the main text of Falun Dafa) in a “transformation class” held by the Jinniu district police station and detained in the Zhizhong women jail. She has a child going to kindergarten that is taken care of by her husband alone and their life is very hard.

6.2.7 Wang’s son was sentenced to one year and a half of forced labor education

Message received: February 3, 2000 [Minghui News]

Victim: Mr. Wang

Location of incident: Sichuan Province, China

Description:

Mr. Wang lives at the residential area of the Factory of Seamless Steel Piping in Chengdu. His son was sentenced to one and a half years of forced labor education. His wife had to attend the “transformation class” held by the police station for many days. In order to avoid more trouble, he had to move to another place far away from his workplace.

6.2.8 Sixteen practitioners sent to labor camps because of their appeal for Falun Gong

Message received: February 1, 2000

Victim: Wang Junhua, female. And 15 other practitioners

Location of incident: Mishan and Jixi, Heilongjiang Province

Description:

About 16 practitioners from Mishan of Heilongjiang Province were sent to labor camps for going to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong.

Wang Junhua, a state official and a member of the political consultative congress in Mishan, was given 3 years of forced labor “education”.

Wang Junhua was first arrested on September 24 and then detained for 64 days because she told the police that she would not give up Falun Gong practice. On the eleventh day after she was released, she was again arrested for refusing to promise not to go to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was sentenced at the end of December 1999 without any legal formalities. Her family members have not received any written notice concerning her conviction. In addition, about 29 female practitioners from Jixi of Heilongjiang Province were sent to labor camps. The number of male practitioners is unknown.

6.2.9 More than twenty practitioners sentenced to one to three years of forced labor “education”

Message received: January 22, 2000

Victims: More than 20 Falun Gong practitioners including

1. Long Ting
2. Zhou Ping
3. Chi Baoshen
4. Zhu Cuihua
5. Li Qinxia
6. Liu Deyu

Location of incident: Jinmen County, Hubei Province

Description:

It was reported by “Jinmen Daily” that from December 1 to December 30, 64 practitioners from Jinmen County had gone to Beijing. The police officers from Jinmen County escorted all of them back on January 2nd of 2000.

Currently, more than twenty practitioners including Long Ting and Zhou Ping (husband and wife), Chi Baoshen, Zhu Cuihua, Li Qinxia and Liu Deyu, etc. have been sentenced from one to 3 years in forced labor “edu-cation”.

6.2.10 A professor sentenced to 3 years of forced labor

Message received: January 18, 2000

Victim: Hong Jirong, female, 62 years of age

Location of incident: Wengjiang County, Chengdu, Sichuan Province

Description:

Hong Jirong, a professor of Sichuan University, was sentenced to 3 years of forced labor by the Chengdu police because of her suspected involvement in drafting and signing “an appeal letter to United Nations Secretary Mr. Annan from Practitioners in Sichuan Province”.

6.2.11 Practitioners given 3 years of forced labor “education” without a trial

Message received: January 18, 2000

Victim: Song Bangfu

Location of incident: Guiyang, Guizhou Province

Description:

Since July 22, Song Bangfu exchanged experiences with practitioners from other places in Guizhou Province. He encouraged them to continue to practice and protect Falun Gong. October 28, he went to Beijing to appeal and was arrested at Tiananmen Square. After he was sent back to Guiyang, he was given three years of forced labor “education” without a trial.

6.2.12 Practitioners who signed an open letter to President Jiang were given forced labor “edu-cation”

Message received: January 15, 2000

Victims:

1. Wang Tianyou
2. Wang Bing
3. 284 practitioners from Daqing
4. Yang Shuhua
5. Hou Shunan
6. Guo Yuxia
7. Ren Zhaoyan
8. Tao Weiji
9. Li Shumei
10. Wang Guofang

Location of incident: Daqing, Heilongjiang Province

Description:

In Daqing, Heilongjiang Province, practitioners signed an open letter to president Jiang. They asked him to rescind his decision to crackdown on Falun Gong and stop the large-scale persecution against peaceful Falun Gong practitioners. Among them, six representatives, including Wang Bin and Wang Tianyou, were arrested before they were able to go to Beijing to deliver this letter. The letter and the banner with signatures were also confiscated. Afterwards, many practitioners were detained. As of January 3, six representatives had been forced to undergo “labor education.”

Despite police interception, many practitioners from Daqing have gone to Beijing to appeal. After they were escorted back, they were detained. Those who refuse to give up Falun Gong after “being educated” will be sent to forced labor camps. Among them were Yang Shuhua, Hou Shunan, Guo Yuxia, Ren Zhaoyan, Tao Weiji, Li Shumei and Wang Guofang. Some workplaces forced Falun Gong practitioners to pay more than 10,000 Yuan (more than annual salary for an average worker) as deposit. It they appeal in Beijing, the security officers will use this deposit as travel expense to find them in Beijing and escort them back. Some workplaces threaten to fire practitioners’ spouses and/or children if they go to Beijing to appeal.

6.2.13 Three practitioners sent to forced labor camps because they had gone to Beijing to appeal

Message received: January 13, 2000

Victims:

1. Zhang Yaqun, female
2. Wang Kai
3. Wang Shilin

Location of incident: Chengdu, Sichuan Province

Description:

Zhang Yaqun went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. She was detained afterwards. Shortly after her release, she was again arrested when she was watching the video “The Biography of Jesus” at Wang Kai’s home. Zhang Yaqun was given a sentence of 18 months of forced labor. Wang Kai and Wang Shilin were sent to forced labor camps too.

6.2.14 A party member sentenced to 3 years in forced labor camp for his belief in Falun Gong

Message received: December 29, 1999

Location of incident: Xishui, Guizhou Province

Victims: Lu Anqiu and other 20 practitioners

Description:

The Disciplinary Committee of Xishui county of Guizhou Province expelled the former Deputy Secretary of Tuchen, Lu Anqiu, from the Communist Party because he refused to renounce Falun Gong. The Public Security Bureau sentenced him to three years in forced labor camp.

At the end of 1999, about twenty practitioners had been sent to forced labor camps. It is said that practitioners who went to Beijing to appeal more than once would be sent to forced labor camp directly.

6.2.15 Practitioners in Zhejiang Province sent to forced labor camp

Message received: December 28, 1999

Victims: Cheng Qu and 11 others practitioners

Location of incident: Haiyan, Zhejiang Province

Description:

In Haiyan, about eleven practitioners went to Beijing to appeal at the beginning of November. Among them, Cheng Qu has been sent to a labor camp for one year of forced labor.

6.2.16 Twenty six practitioners sent to a labor camp

Message received: December 16, 1999

Victims: 26 Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Labor Camp

Description:

I was sent to the labor camp on November 3. Now there are six practitioners from Shijiazhuang, two from Shenzhe County, two from Zhao County, four from Tangshan, four from Handan, one from Langfang city and seven from Chengde city.

6.2.17 Practitioners detained in Changchun were forced to work 18 to 19 hours everyday

Message received: December 14, 1999

Victims: About one Hundred Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Heizhuizi female labor camp in Changchun, Jilin Province

Description:

There are one Hundred Falun Gong practitioners in the Heizhuizi female labor camp in Changchun. They have been sentenced to one year of forced labor “education” without trial because they refused to renounce Falun Gong and they had appealed to high authorities. They have little to no contact with the outside world. The authorities do not allow their family members to visit them. According to reliable sources, they are forced to work for 18-19 hours per day, and the labor is extremely demanding. They are now (December 14, 1999) on hunger strike against the inhuman treatment.

6.2.18 Liu Juhua from Tangshan sentenced to 3 years of labor education

Message received: December 14, 1999

Victims:

1. Liu Juhua
2. Yang Xuezhen and 2 other practitioners

Location of incident: Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province

Description:

Liu Juhua from Tangshan has been sentenced to 3 years in the labor camp of Shijiazhuang because she had gone to Beijing to appeal 3 times.

On September 22, when she and another fellow practitioner Yang Xuezhen were questioned by a police officer in Beijing, they admitted they were Falun Gong practitioners. They were sent to the Beijing Qinghe detention center. They were ordered to take off their clothes and were searched.

They were then interrogated until two a.m., the following morning. They were not allowed to sleep or talk to others. Three days later, they were sent to Kaiping detention center in Tangshan. On November 15, four practitioners including Liu Juhua were sent to the labor camp of Shijiazhuang.

6.2.19 Fourteen practitioners in Shijiazhuang sent to labor camps

Message received: December 14, 1999

Victims:

1. Qiu Liying
2. Zhou Ximeng
3. Bai Yuzhi and other 11 Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province

Description:

In Shijiazhuang, at least nine practitioners have been arrested and fourteen have been sent to labor camps.

According to an official newspaper, Qiu Liying was arrested on October 17 at Tiananmen Square when she was watching the flag-raising ceremony. She had been detained in the police station, detention center and labor camp. Now she is detained together with Zhou Ximeng, Bai Yuzhi and other practitioners. All of them have been sentenced to 3 years of labor education.

6.2.20 Thirty five practitioners in Jinzhou sent to labor camps without trials

Message received: December 13, 1999

Victims: 35 Falun Gong practitioners

1. Zhu Ying
2. Wang Yuxian
3. Si Guifan
4. Dan Zhijia
5. Wu Naihuan
6. Wang Jun
7. Chen Fengzhen
8. Liu Ping
9. Ma Chao
10. Cui Yaning
11. Dai Liguo
12. Yi Houmei
13. He Goujun
14. Jia Jinwen
15. Feng Wenguang
16. Shang Peng
17. Wang Zhifei and others

Location of incident: Jinzhou, Liaoning Province

Description:

Up to now, a total of thirty-five practitioners in Jinzhou have been sent to labor camps without trials. There terms ranging from 2 to 3 years.

6.2.21 A practitioner sent to a labor camp for practicing exercise on Tiananmen Square

Message received: December 13, 1999

Victim: Zhu Qingxi, resident of Shandong Province

Location of incident: Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Description:

Zhu Qingxi has been sent to a labor camp in Luoyang, Henan Province for one and one half years of labor education because he practiced Falun Gong exercises in Tiananmen Square in October. She was employed at the Hospital of Dongying Shengli Oil Field of Shandong Province.

Currently, the Oil Field is detaining several practitioners. One of them has been detained for about four months.

6.2.22 Thirty Falun Gong practitioners in Jiamusi sent to labor camps

Message received: November 30, 1999 [AP]

Victims: 30 Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Jiamusi, Shuangyashan and Changchun, P. R. China

Description:

BEIJING (AP) -- Thirty members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement have been sent to labor camps in northeast China, adding to the followers of the banned sect jailed without trial nationwide, a rights group reported today.

Most of the 300 labor camps throughout China now contain members of Falun Gong, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China reported.

The thirty followers from 3 cities were sent to labor camps last week either because they went to Beijing to appeal the ban or practiced the group’s now outlawed slow-motion meditation exercises in public places, the rights center said.

It estimated 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners have been sent to labor camps and said the number was growing. Police in China have the authority to send criminal suspects to labor camps for up to 3 years without trial.

6.2.23 China sends twelve Falun Gong members to camps

Message received: November 24, 1999 [AP]

Victims: 12 Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: P. R. China

Description:

BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese authorities have sent another twelve members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement to labor camps, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said.

The twelve were sent away for doing Falun Gong meditation exercises in public in defiance of a government ban on the movement. The center said the number of Falun Gong practitioners sentenced nationwide to labor camp terms may exceed 2,000. Police in China can hand down labor camp sentences without trial.

One facility, a labor camp for female prisoners in the northeastern city of Changchun, is holding 150 practitioners with sentences ranging from one to three years, the human rights center said.

6.2.24 Twelve Falun Gong members sentenced to labor camp

Message received: November 23, 1999 [Agence France Presse]

Victims: 12 Falun Gong members sentenced to labor and 5 Falun Gong practitioners arrested

Location of incident: P. R. China

Description:

China has sentenced twelve Falun Gong members to forced labor camp and arrested five others. A human rights group said Tuesday.

The twelve sentenced to labor camps were punished for practicing the banned group’s meditation exercises in public, the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said in a statement released in Beijing. They included four members from Qiqihar in northernmost Province of Heilongjiang and eight people from Liaoyuan in Jilin Province. One of the woman, Sun Xiuzhi, was sentenced to a women’s labor camp in Jilin’s Changchun city for three years on Sunday.

The camp currently has 150 Falun Gong practitioners serving sentences of one to three years, the information center said. Meanwhile, five Falun Gong members from Shenyang in northeast China were arrested after they were accused of trying to sneak computer printouts of the Falun Gong’s web site to jailed members, the information center said.

6.2.25 Eight practitioners sentenced to forced labor for practicing the meditation exercises at home

Message received: November 19, 1999 [Agence France Presse]

Victims: 8 Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Shuanghe Ranch in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province

Description:

BEIJING, November 19, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Eight followers of the mystical Falun Gong sect have been sentenced to forced labor in China for practicing the banned group’s meditation exercises at home, a human rights group said Friday. The eight people -- all residents of Daqing in the northernmost Province of Heilongjiang -- on Monday were sent to Shuanghe Ranch in the Province’s city of Qiqihar, one of the harshest labor camps in the country, the information center said.

6.2.26 Thirty five people sent to labor camps in the northern part of Hebei Province in the past ten days

Message received: November 13, 1999

Victims: 35 Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Hebei Province

Description:

November 13, 1999, AP reported that at the end of this month, the Chinese government will trial 300 important Falun Gong practitioners including seven from Shijiazhuang who are on hunger strike. In the past ten days, thirty-five practitioners have been sent labor camps for up to three years of labor education in the northern part of Hebei Province alone.

6.2.27 Forty practitioners in Jinzhou sentenced to 2 to 3 years of labor education without trials

Message received: November 10, 1999

Victims: 40 Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Jinzhou, Shandong Province

Description:

In the morning of November 10, 1999, I called a practitioner in Jinzhou. She said that she just got out of the detention center. According to her knowledge, about forty practitioners in Jinzhou were sentenced to 2 to 3 years of labor education without any open trials. Some practitioners were arrested at home. The police asked them whether or not they would continue to practice Falun Gong. They would be immediately taken away if they answered yes. A practitioner was taken into custody when he was working in the farming field. He was sentenced to 2 years of labor education.

Many practitioners have been escorted back from Beijing. To be released, one must write a pledge promising that one will stop practicing Falun Gong, and will not go to Beijing to appeal. In addition, a “deposit” of 2,000 ~ 4,000 Yuan is required.

6.2.28 Nine Falun Gong practitioners were sentenced to labor education

Message received: November 3, 1999

Victims:

1. Zhou Ximeng
2. Qiu Liying
3. Wu Huiqin
4. Huang Wei
5. Dang Lanfeng
6. Liu Fengming
7. Wang Jin
8. Bai Yuzhi
9. Liu Lihui

Location of incident: Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province

Description:

November 3, 1999 Shijiazhuang, 9 Falun Gong practitioners, Zhou Ximeng, Qiu Liying, Wu Huiqin, Huang Wei, Dang Lanfeng, Liu Fengming, Wang Jin, Bai Yuzhi and Liu Lihui were sentenced to labor education. See
6.4.6 for more information about Zhou Ximeng.

6.2.29 Five hundred Falun Gong practitioners sentenced

Message received: November 7, 1999 [BBC World Service]

Victims: 500 Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Hebei Province

Description:

According to the newsroom of the BBC World Service, A Hong Kongbased human rights group said yesterday that at lease five hundred Falun Gong practitioners from Hebei Province have been sent to labor camps. Some of them were sent to the camps without trial to avoid publicity.

6.2.30 Chinese crackdown extends to local Falun Gong leaders

Message received: November 6, 1999 [Washington Post Foreign Service]

Victims: Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Beijing

Description:

BEIJING, Chinese news reports and local officials said today that local Falun Gong leaders were charged with various crimes in Qingdao, Hainan Island and Chongqing. A local paper in Jilin, in northeastern China, said seven practitioners were sent to labor camps without trial for one year for “disturbing social order.” Four lead-ers were charged in Beijing earlier this week, including

Li Chang, a former official in the Ministry of Public Security.

6.2.31 A high school teacher sentenced to a year in labor camp

Message received: October 27, 1999

Victims: Ding Xiaoxia, and 10 other Falun Gong practitioners in Liaoyuan, Jilin Province

Description:

Falun Gong practitioners who have traveled from Jilin, Liaoyuan to Beijing to appeal to the government were detained and fined. Ding Xiaoxia, an outstanding high school teacher, was sentenced to one year in a labor camp along with more than 10 other practitioners.

6.2.32 Five Falun Gong practitioners sentenced to labor camp without trial

Message received: October 21,1999 [Agence France-Presses]

Victims: Five Falun Gong practitioners

Location of incident: Changchun, Jilin Province, China

Description:

(Mainland China) According to Agence France-Presses, five practitioners have been sent to a labor camp for one year without trial or notification of relatives, a human rights group said Thursday. The practitioners were sent to a labor “reeducation” camp by police in the northeastern city,

Changchun, last week simply because they went to Beijing to appeal, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights.

Early Thursday seven Falun Gong practitioners in the southwestern city of Chengdu were taken away by police while they were practicing the meditation exercises in a park, the center said. Their whereabouts are unknown.

6.2.33 Two practitioners in Changchun sentenced to one year in labor camp

Message received: October 20,1999

Victims:

1. Wang Yuxiang
2. Sun Shufeng Both are residents of Changchun, Jilin Province.

Location of incident: Beijing

Description:

The couple Wang Yuxiang and Sun Shufeng went to Beijing to appeal in September. The police sent them back to Changchun. They were detained until October 8. On October 13, Wang Yuxiang was arrested again and was sentenced to one year of labor education. On October 15, Sun Shufeng was also arrested and received the same sentence.

6.2.34 China sentenced five practitioners to labor camp without trial or notification of relatives

Message received: October 1, 1999

Victims:

1. Li Zhiling, female
2. Tian Xiuhua
3. Sui Dali
4. Chang Yu
5. Zhang Jiezi

Location of incident: Changchun, Jilin Province

Description:

Chinese authorities sentenced Li Zhiling and four other Falun Gong practitioners to one year in a labor camp without trial or notification of relatives. The five Falun Gong practitioners were detained in northeast China’s Changchun around the 50th anniversary of Communist Party rule on October 1. Authorities accused the five of organizing Falun Gong practitioners to go to Beijing to petition the government. When the five refused to admit wrongdoing, police sentenced them to one year of reeducation through labor’’ on charges of “disrupting social order.” Since the five were sentenced on October 12, police have failed to notify their families as to where they are held. Police can send people to labor camps for up to three years without trial.

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