Art Teacher Ms. Yang Xueyan Arrested; Communist Regime Agents Obstruct Her Lawyer's Attempt to Defend Her

Name: Yang Xueyan(杨雪燕)
Gender: Female
Age: 40
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Art teacher in Qingdao, Shandong Province
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 13, 2011
Most Recent Place of Detention: Dashan Detention Center in Qingdao (青岛市大山看守所)
City: Qingdao
Province: Shandong
Persecution Suffered: Detention
Key Persecutor: Wang Zengshi, secretary-general of Qingdao 610 Office

(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Yang Xueyan, 40, is an art teacher in Qingdao and a Falun Gong practitioner. Once, when she was clarifying the truth to her students, she was reported by parents who did not know the truth about Falun Gong or about the persecution by the Chinese Communist Party. Ms. Yang was arrested on May 13, 2011, by Zhonghan Police Station officers. She is being detained at Dashan Detention Center in Qingdao. It is said that she might be sentenced.

Ms. Yang's family has been asking for help to rescue her. They went to the Laoshan District Procuratorate to request that Ms. Yang be released. They had to argue with the gatekeeper for a long time before they were let in. Staff person Zhao (female) and Liu from the Arrest and Detection Section met them. They did not dare give out their names. Zhao was rude, too.

Her parents decided to hire a lawyer to defend Ms. Yang. They reached out to many lawyers. but nobody wanted to take the case because the lawyers were afraid of adversely affecting their own personal interests by defending a Falun Gong practitioner. Then a lawyer from out of town heard about her case and decided to take it on.

The lawyer went to the Detection Section of the Procuratorate on August 4, 2011. The staff person said, “You need to have a statement from the local judicial bureau in order to represent this person.” The lawyer said, “I have been to more than 20 provinces in this country, and I have never been told this.” The person responded, “This is Qingdao's policy.” The lawyer went to Laoshan Judicial Bureau. The person in charge there, Zhu Yun, said, “We don't know about this policy.” According to insider information, this rule wasset up by the local 610 Office to prevent any local lawyers from representing Falun Gong practitioners. When lawyers from out of town attempt to represent Falun Gong practitioners, these officials will, of course, try their hardest to obstruct the defense process.

The lawyer decided to go to Qingdao City Judicial Bureau to solve the issue. Division head Yan responded at 9:00 a.m. on August 5, 2011, “I am not aware of any official policy regarding this.” A staff person from Qingdao City Appeals Office responded at10:30 a.m., “We do not know about this policy, but I will pass on your feedback. Please wait for my phone call.” At 2:00 p.m., Qingdao Procuratorate Division head Wang called, “There is indeed such a policy.” But he could not provide any official documentation. The lawyer told Wang, “You are intentionally setting up roadblocks, depriving the victim's family of the right to hire a lawyer and depriving me of my rights as a lawyer!” Later, Li Danshi from Laoshan District Judicial Bureau called and said, “I will pass along your feedback to my superiors.”

Ms. Yang's father went to Division head Wang's office twice, on August 8 and August 10. The response was, “You can ask the 610 Office.” He then went to the city government office. The 610 Office person did not give his name, but he kept asking Ms. Yang's father, “Who hired the lawyer? Where is the lawyer now? Is the lawyer still working for you?” They obviously were afraid of Ms. Yang's family hiring the lawyer from outside of Qingdao. In the end, his response was the same: “I will pass on your feedback.”

Lately, there have been many cases where lawyers who attempt to defend Falun Gong practitioners are obstructed and harassed. The deprivation of lawyers' rights and victims' families' rights to hire lawyers to defend practitioners is the direct result of interference from the Qingdao City 610 Office and Political and Legal Committee.

Wang Zengshi

Contact Information:

Wang Zengshi, secretary-general of Qingdao 610 Office: [phone]
Zhu Yun, Laoshan District Judicial Bureau: [phone]
Li Danshi, deputy head of Laoshan District Judicial Bureau: [phone]
Wang, Division head, Qingdao City Procuratorate: [phone]

For more contact information, please refer to the original Chinese article.