(Clearwisdom.net) VOA reported on August 21 that Bu Dongwei, a staff member of the Beijing office of the U.S. Asia Foundation, headquartered in San Francisco, was recently sentenced to a labor camp for a term of 2.5 years after being detained for three months.
No news for three months after he was arrested
The thirty-eight-year-old Bu Dongwei is a Falun Gong practitioner. After he was arrested on May 19 this year, his wife, Lou Hongwei asked a previous classmate at the Law School of Beijing University to defend him. But the lawyer and Mr. Bu’s family members were not allowed to visit him and did not receive any written notice from authorities. They asked around about his plight.
Ms. Lou said, "According to the law, lawyers can meet a defendant, whatever crime he has committed. But this lawyer was not allowed to visit Mr. Bu. Authorities told the lawyer that there was no law stating a lawyer can meet a defendant. Yesterday, the lawyer told me that he wanted to drop the case."
Receiving notice signed two months ago
To rescue her husband, Ms. Lou has come to the US. She said, "On August 15, I called home and my parents-in-law said that they received notice of the labor camp sentence from Haidian Division of Beijing Bureau of Public Safety. It was the first formal notice we have received in three months after Bu Dongwei was arrested."
The notice stated that 80 copies of Falun Gong literature were found during the ransacking of his home, which did not conform to the testimony of a witness. Incorrect items of law were referred to in the notice. Police also said that the deadline to review the case was at day 60 and that it had passed. But Ms. Lou said that the review deadline should be counted from the day after the notice is received.
Ms. Lou said, "The notice of the labor camp sentence was signed on June 19, one month after Bu Dongwei was arrested. But we received it three months after he was taken away. Thus, lots of unlawful procedures occurred, including his lawyer not being allowed to visit him and the late delivery of the notice."
