59-Year-Old Woman Jailed for Her Faith, Allowed Only One Family Visit in 7 Months and Counting

(Minghui.org) A 59-year-old Shenyang City, Liaoning Province resident has been allowed only one family visit since she was admitted to prison on August 16, 2022 to serve a 4.5-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Ms. Liu Gangli’s family has made repeated requests for more family visits, but to no avail.

Ms. Liu Gangli

Ms. Liu was arrested on February 2, 2020, for distributing Falun Gong materials. She was sentenced to 4.5 years on August 10, 2021 and transferred to Liaoning Province No. 2 Women’s Prison on August 16, 2022. She suffered from high blood pressure in October that year, one month after she taken to the fourth ward.

Ms. Liu’s family frequented the prison and called them, requesting to visit her. They also contacted the prison’s hot line and the procuratorate, only to be stonewalled.

Even when her husband was finally allowed to see her on January 12, 2023, it was on the condition that he persuade her to renounce Falun Gong and the visitation lasted only ten minutes. No visitation has been allowed after that.

Denied Visitation for Being a “Bad Influence” on Ms. Liu

Ms. Liu’s family came to the prison again on January 12, 2023 to visit her. They waited for half an hour before three female guards showed up. They said, “Liu is under strict management right now. Usually no visitation would be permitted. But we’ve asked for instructions from the prison warden. Now we want to know your position on her practicing Falun Gong. Do you oppose it?”

The guards went on to say, “According to our prison regulations, if you can make positive contributions towards her transformation (giving up Falun Gong), then we can apply for you to visit her. In other words, if you oppose her in practicing Falun Gong and hope her correct her mistake, you will be able to see her. But if you support her, then it’s for sure that we wouldn’t approve the visitation, because you will be a bad influence on her.”

In the end, Ms. Liu’s husband was allowed to see her by himself and only for ten minutes.

Those who weren’t allowed to see Ms. Liu questioned the guards on the legal basis for denying their visitation rights. The guards repeated their reasoning that if the family didn’t oppose her in practicing Falun Gong, then they wouldn’t have a constructive role in helping Ms. Liu to “realize her mistake.”

The family pointed out that Chinese prison management law didn’t have such stipulations and the prison was violating the law.

The guards replied, “We are a Chinese prison. But our prison has our own rules. This is what the prison warden has said.”

The family then demanded to see their rules.

The guards claimed, “We aren’t allowed to casually show our prison documents to people, especially you.”

“The condition you imposed for us, to object to her practice of Falun Gong, has nothing to do with visitation. Are you willing to be responsible for your words?” The family questioned the guards.

After Ms. Liu’s husband’s short visitation, one of her family members asked the guards again why they were denied their visitation rights. One guard replied, “I’m a prison guard. I have to follow the prison rules.” She appeared to be indifferent when the family said they would file complaints against them.

But when the family tried to file the complaint, the door of the prison administration office was closed and they couldn’t find the phone number of people in charge.

Brother Blocked from Visiting Her

Ms. Liu’s family members came to the visitation center on February 14, 2023 and applied to visit her again. It happened that guard Na Yu of the prison service center was there. Upon seeing Ms. Liu’s younger brother, Na asked him, “Have we asked you to see her? Did we call you?”

The brother replied that he hadn’t seen his sister for over six months and it’s his right to visit her.

“Hasn’t she just seen her husband? We have requirements and rules about visitation. You have to be notified before you can come. You won’t be allowed to see her without an appointment.”

“Then we just wait for your notification forever?”

Na insisted that she wouldn’t let him see Ms. Liu. She also directed him to the prison service center, saying that the visitation center was only for those who had made appointments.

The brother demanded to talk to the ward director, but a male guard claimed that the director didn’t have the obligation to meet with him and he also directed the brother to the prison service center.

Ms. Liu’s brother said since his sister was taken to the prison, he and his family members had gone to the prison service center multiple times, but Na found all kinds of excuses to turn them down.

The Prison Guards Who Only Follow Internal Orders

On February 23, 2023, the visitation day of the fourth ward, Ms. Liu’s family returned to the prison to visit her. They argued that it’s illegal for the prison to deny the detainees’ family visitation. No matter what regulation the prison has, they have to follow the law.

A guard said to them, “You have to be aware of your position in our conversation. If you say she’s wronged, then I’m sorry, you came to the wrong place. You should talk to the court. If she is already in prison, that means she has been convicted and we as the prison have the right to manage her.”

Another guard, Zhao Changru, who has been put on the perpetrators’ list for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, argued that they had allowed Ms. Liu’s husband to see her last time.

The guards insisted that they definitely wouldn’t allow the family to visit Ms. Liu that day and they argued that the law didn’t specify that inmates must be visited by anyone.

The family took out two documents. One was the cult list published by the Public Security Bureau in 2000, which didn’t include Falun Gong. The other was a notice from the Chinese publication bureau that lifted the ban on Falun Gong books in 2011.

Zhao said, “If you think she is wronged, you can go ahead and file a motion to reconsider her case with the court. If you talk to us about Falun Gong, do you want to cause more trouble for Liu? If you truly care about her, you’d better put up those documents.”

The family demanded to see the prison’s regulation that placed Ms. Liu under strict management. Zhao said the prison’s documents were confidential, but she confirmed that they made the decision because Ms. Liu refused to renounce Falun Gong.

The family said they would come again a month later. Zhao replied, “I don’t recommend that you come next month. You should just wait for the notification to visit her.”

During the conversation, one of Ms. Liu’s family members tried to persuade the guards to help the practitioners if they could, but Sun Weijing, the supervisor of the fourth ward, threatened to report them to the police.

Four armed officers stood by throughout the conversation, as if they were ready to arrest the family members at any time.

Family Request the Prison to Release Key Information about Ms. Liu

Worried about Ms. Liu, her family wrote to Ma Xiao, the prison warden, Gao Changsheng, the director of the Liaoning Provincial Prison Administration Bureau, and Lin Zhimin, the director of the Liaoning Provincial Department of Justice, demanding them to release the document that determined Ms. Liu as a “strictly managed inmate,” the personnel responsible for transforming her, as well as the officials who decided to deny Ms. Liu’s family visitation or phone calls.

The family also demanded to know whether Ms. Liu is being tortured in the prison, how the prison handled those who tortured her, as well as her medical record since her imprisonment.

The prison and prison management bureau never responded to the family. The justice department denied their request, with the excuse that the information they demanded was a state secret.

The family appealed the justice department’s decision. They argued that the agency was ignoring illegal conduct going on in the prison. The fact that they called it a “state secret” suggests that they knew about the torture in the prison. The family demanded that the justice department protect Ms. Liu’s personal safety and the family’s right to visit her. They vowed to do their best to seek justice for Ms. Liu.

Liaoning Province No.2 Women’s Prison

Perpetrators’ information:

Ma Xiao (马骁), prison presidentWang Wei (王蔚), political secretaryLang Lang (郎朗), director of the fourth wardSun Weijing (孙玮静), supervisor of the fourth ward: [phone]Zhao Changru (肇昌茹), prison guard

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