The Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong --October 24, 2009

Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Content


  • Under 610 Office's Instruction,  Court Gives Ms. Hu Qili a Mock Trail
    • The 610 Office let the court find Ms. Hu guilt first before the trail. The judge only allowed her to read the first two sentences of her statement.
  • FDI Report: During New York Visit, Chinese Forced Labor Camp Director Sued by Local Refugees for Torture
    • The defendant, Mr. Shi Honghui, was approached by a process server while visiting Pier 16 in lower Manhattan. Upon being served, Mr. Shi threw the documents to the ground. He later fled the scene in a chartered bus, leaving other members of his party stranded at the pier.

    Under 610 Office's Instruction, Court Gives Ms. Hu Qili a Mock Trail

    Name: Hu Qili 
    Gender: Female
    Age: 48
    Address: Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province
    Occupation: Formerly on the staff of Fangyuan Hospital (Affliated with the City Mining Corp.)
    Date of Most Recent Arrest: 2009
    Most Recent Place of Detention: Unknown
    City: Shuangyashan
    Province: Heilongjiang
    Persecution Suffered: Forced Labor, Fired from Workplace, Detention

    Ms. Hu Qili was fired from her job for practicing Falun Gong. For the same reason, she was detained and imprisoned in forced labor camps many times. On September 25, 2009, the Jianshan District Court in Shuangyashan City, Heilongjiang Province, held a trial for Ms. Hu. From her arrest to the trial, the justice system violated the law on numerous occasions. During her most recent arrest, police officers deceived her into opening her door by pretending to be fee collectors. Once inside her home, they searched it without a warrant and seized private property and cash. They applied for a search warrant after the event.

    According to an insider, in early August, the Shuangyashan City 610 Office held a justice system meeting. They ordered the court to find Ms. Hu guilty and have the trial finished by September 15, 2009.

    The court issued only five courtroom entry tickets to Ms. Hu's family, so only five members could be present at her trial. On September 24, the day before the trial, her father and daughter appealed to the chief judge, Gao Zhixin, for extra tickets. Gao refused to meet with them. Ms. Hu's daughter called him and asked, "Which regulation states five tickets only?"

    Gao did not answer her and hung up the phone.

    Ms. Hu had prepared a three-page statement to plead not guilty. After she read the first two sentences, the judge declared, "The statement is finished" and did not allow her to speak anymore.

    Ms. Hu's two attorneys pleaded not guilty for her, but their plea was repeatedly interrupted by Gao Zhixin. Gao even said, "Say no more. The intention being conveyed is enough. Do not quote the constitution. It has nothing to do with the constitution."

    The attorneys stated that practicing Falun Gong in China is legal by law, that talking about the facts of Falun Gong or distributing Falun Gong flyers does not break any law. They argued from nine different angles that there is no law against being a Falun Gong practitioner. At one point, Gao parroted, "Yes, there is no law against practicing Falun Gong."

    The prosecutor did not present any physical evidence to the court. The person claiming to be the prosecutor declared that he was the prosecutor Li Dongjie in the indictment. When the defense attorney questioned his identity, he did not argue.

    When the judge adjourned the court, he asked the attorney to sign a transcript. The attorney refused, "I have not read the transcript of the court testimony. How can I sign it?"

    Ms. Hu did not sign, either. Her family is going to fight for her innocence.


    FDI Report: During New York Visit, Chinese Forced Labor Camp Director Sued by Local Refugees for Torture 

    Falun Dafa Information Center     (View article as web page: http://faluninfo.net/article/919/)

    23 Oct 2009

    NEW YORK – The man in charge of forced labor camps in China's Guangdong province was served yesterday with a lawsuit while visiting Manhattan. The complaint, filed on behalf of two female refugees now residing in Queens and other victims still in China, urges that the camp system superintendent be held liable for torture, illegal deprivation of liberty, and other severe human rights violations carried out in Guangdong labor camps that he has overseen since 2000.

    The defendant, Mr. Shi Honghui, was approached by a process server while visiting Pier 16 in lower Manhattan on October 22. Upon being served, Mr. Shi threw the documents to the ground. He later fled the scene in a chartered bus, leaving other members of his party stranded at the pier.

    One of the plaintiffs, 36-year-old Ms. Chen Hua, a former businesswoman and television actress, arrived in the United States in May 2009 as a United Nations refugee after fleeing to Thailand to escape persecution and currently resides in Queens. Beginning in August 2000, Chen was sent without trial twice to Chatou Women’s “Re-education Through Labor” Camp in Guangdong’s capital city of Guangzhou for her belief in Falun Gong, where she spent a total of over five years. Among the documents committing her to the camp were ones signed personally by Mr. Shi.

    During her time in the camp and related detention centers, Chen endured extensive physical and psychological torture including prolonged sleep deprivation, severe beatings—often while her arms and legs were tied in painful positions—and forced feeding of a salt concentration that left her vomiting salt and blood for many days. The torture was aimed at forcing her to renounce her personal religious belief in Falun Gong.

    “As we speak, Falun Gong practitioners like Ms. Chen are still being detained and tortured in Guangdong labor camps under Mr. Shi’s authority, in violation of China’s own laws,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Erping Zhang. “We hope that lawsuits such as this will encourage Mr. Shi and his colleagues to stop persecuting Falun Gong and send a clear message that although there is impunity for such crimes under the current Communist Party regime, perpetrators will eventually be held to account.”
     
    The remaining plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the class of Falun Gong practitioners unlawfully sent to an estimated 20 labor camps in Guangdong province overseen by Mr. Shi as part of the Chinese Communist Party's decade-long campaign to “crush” the traditional Chinese spiritual practice. Recent studies by human rights groups and other experts have found that Falun Gong practitioners are among the largest groups of detainees in China’s labor camp system, estimated to number in the tens of thousands. More than 3,000 Falun Gong deaths from abuse have been verified since 1999. (For additional background see: Journalists' Corner)

    The class action lawsuit against Mr. Shi was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York under the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victims Protection Act, which enable victims of torture from abroad to sue for redress in U.S. courts.

    Ms. Chen and another female plaintiff in the lawsuit, Ms. Zou Yuyun, reside in New York City and are available for interviews.