(Clearwisdom.net) On May 14, 2009, practitioner Mr. Song Sheng from Qianan County, Jilin Province, was secretly arrested and taken to the Jilin Prison. Earlier that month, on May 6, practitioner Mr. Yang Baosen was arrested and taken to the Gongzhuling City Prison. Both arrests were part of the Chinese Communist Party's continued persecution of Falun Gong.
At around 4:00 p.m. on December 22, 2008, Mr. Song was arrested by officers from the Yuzhou Road Police Station with the collaboration of his landlord. The police broke the lock, entered Mr. Song's rented room, and ransacked it. They confiscated 4,000 copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, a printer, and other items, worth a total value of over 10,000 yuan. The officers took Mr. Song to the Yuzhou Road Police Station (also known as the No. 1 Police Station) where they tortured him for the next 24 hours.
At noon on December 23, 2008, officer Du Xueming led a group of officers from the Yuzhou Road Police Station to Mr. Yang's home. They broke the lock, entered his home, and searched it. They confiscated a picture of Teacher Li, a printer, a computer, and other items. Mr. Yang was brutally tortured at the police station by officers Shi Yuefu, Wang Xiaodong, Yu Bo, and Du Xueming. According to witnesses, Mr. Yang had already been tortured to the point that he had difficulty walking when he was taken to the Qianan County Detention Center. The police had beaten him with a steel pipe. The lower part of his body was black and blue and extremely swollen, and all ten of his toenails were cracked. At the detention center, the guards poured cold water all over Mr. Yang's body and left him to freeze outside in the bitterly cold weather. They were afraid that Mr. Yang might freeze to death, so they poured liquor down his throat. While Mr. Yang was at the Qianan County Detention Center, officers from the Yuzhou Road Police Station used the pretext of "interrogation" to force Mr. Yang outside and torture him using a number of methods, including the ones described above.
At the end of 2008, the Qianan County Court secretly tried Messrs. Yang and Song without giving them the opportunity to hire attorneys and without notifying their family members. During the trial, Mr. Yang was forced to represent himself. Judge Wang Mukun, however, ruled that his self-representation was invalid, and the trial ended hastily. Mr. Yang was sentenced to ten years, and Mr. Song was sentenced to twelve years.
Afterwards, their family members obtained copies of the verdicts after encountering many difficulties. In April 2009, the families hired attorneys Mr. Li Heping, Mr. Wang Yajun, Mr. Cao Ming, and Mr. Guo Shaofei from the Gaobolonghua Law Firm in Beijing to appeal the case and prepare the practitioners' defense. The case was appealed to the Songyuan City Middle Court. Originally, the trial was set for April 14, 2009, but under pressure from the provincial High Court, the Middle Court told the defense attorneys on April 11 that the trial date had been moved to April 15. When the attorneys went to the Middle Court to file legal briefs on April 14, they were again told that the trial had been delayed.
At the end of April, the four attorneys were notified by the Middle Court that the trial would not be open. The court forced the attorneys to produce their arguments before May 1. The Songyuan City Middle Court used an underhanded means to uphold the original verdict.
Yuzhou Road Police Station (No. 1 Police Station):
Zhou Tieming, Chief: 86-13904388330 (Cell)
Shi Yuefu, Assistant Chief: 86-438-8929460
Zhao Yuqin, Assistant Director of the Qianan County Police Department (whose
main responsibility is to persecute Falun Gong): 86-438-8233929 (Office),
86-438-8221919 (Home), 86-13891489799 (Cell)