(Minghui.org) Continued from Part 4.
Short Notices Before Trial
Ms. Liu’s parents received a call at around 6 p.m. on December 26, 2011, from the Zhongshan District Court informing them that Ms. Liu’s trial was scheduled for the next day. “Whether you show up or not, the hearing starts at 9 a.m. tomorrow,” they were told. With such short notice, the family didn’t get to hire a lawyer.
Worried, Ms. Liu’s father’s blood pressure went up and he couldn’t get out of bed. Ms. Liu’s mother called Ms. Liu’s brother in a different city and one other relative before her landline stopped working even though she had paid the telephone bill on time. The couple didn’t know what to do.
After much negotiation, presiding judge Jiang Xiaohong of the Zhongshan District Court agreed to give them a few days to hire a lawyer. However, the family was again not notified until around 2 p.m on Sunday, January 8, 2012, that the trial was taking place the next day at 9 a.m.
The two lawyers that the family hired lived in a different city. One lawyer’s license was suspended and he was only able to defend Ms. Liu as a friend. Though the other lawyer arrived in Dalian three and a half hours after the family was notified, he couldn’t meet with the judge or get any paperwork that day since it was after 5 p.m.
The lawyers and Ms. Liu’s family and friends arrived early at the court the next morning. A female staff member and a male officer made it difficult for the lawyer to obtain the necessary files. After much reasoning and persistence, the lawyer got the paperwork ready on time for the hearing.
The Trial
Ms. Liu had been on a hunger strike for almost two weeks by this time. She was emaciated and frail. Her cuffed hands grabbed the rails tightly as she climbed up the stairs to the third floor with much difficulty, resting every few steps.
Her friends and relatives followed her to the third floor but were stopped outside the courtroom. Even though it was a public hearing, only her 80-year-old parents were allowed in.
Ms. Liu stated in court that it was not against the law to practice Falun Dafa and to believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. When she was recounting the torture she was subjected to in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp, the judge cut her off. Her lawyers defended her and pleaded not guilty on her behalf.
When Ms. Liu was escorted out of the courtroom, one of her relatives shouted, “Liu Ronghua is innocent! Release her immediately! Prosecuting someone twice on the same charge is a violation of the law. Law enforcement is breaking the law!” Other friends and relatives also chimed in and condemned the judges and officials.
When Ms. Liu was dragged into the police car, her friends and family shouted in unison, “Liu Ronghua did not break the law! She is innocent! Release her!” They attracted many passersby who stopped and watched. Ms. Liu’s friends and family told them how she was being treated unjustly.
Ten Years in Prison
Ms. Liu was sentenced to ten years in prison on March 30, 2012, counting the two years she had been in the labor camp as time served. Ms. Liu and her family could not believe it—just two days before her forced labor term was up, she was sentenced to a 10-year prison term.
Ms. Liu’s family filed an appeal on April 10, the last day to appeal.
The Dalian Intermediate Court No. 2 Court issued a ruling against Ms. Liu on June 5, 2012. Judge Fu Qingwei rejected the appeal and upheld the original decision.
To rescue their daughter, Ms. Liu’s parents tirelessly petitioned the local police station, police department, procuratorate, and court, but to no avail. The director of the Taoyuan Police Station warned them, “If you dare to come again, your daughter will be locked up until she dies.”
Correctional Division in Liaoning Women’s Prison
After ten months in Yaojia Detention Center, Ms. Liu was transferred to Liaoning Women’s Prison in July 2012. She was first placed in Division No.12—the Correctional Division. Known to the detainees as “hell in hell,” the Correctional Division was set up in 2010 for the specific purpose of “transforming” Falun Dafa practitioners.
The guards and felons assigned to monitor practitioners tried everything they could think of to get practitioners to “transform.” The newly-arrived practitioners were put through hell in this division. To keep the public from finding out about the horrible abuse, the practitioners were not allowed visitors until they were re-assigned two months later. Once assigned to a regular division, regardless of their health or age, they had to do intense labor for long periods of time each day until their terms ended.
According to the law, prisoners have the right to appeal while serving their term. In other words, they can continue to appeal and plead not guilty. However, guards in the Correctional Division and their thugs coerced practitioners into admitting that they’d committed a crime. They were forced to write statements renouncing their belief in Falun Dafa and promise to never practice again.
The guards didn’t directly try to “transform” the resolute practitioners. Instead, they had the criminal inmates beat and torture them in private. Division No. 1 is across the courtyard from the Correctional Division. The prisoners on the north side of the Division No. 1 building could hear practitioners screaming in the Correctional Division in the middle of the night. The resolute practitioners were also made to stand facing a wall or sit on a small stool without moving for long periods of time.
The guards locked up these practitioners’ personal belongings and didn’t allow them access. They were not given any toilet paper for the restroom—some went for six months without toilet paper—nor any feminine products while they were menstruating. The guards told the practitioners to “shake dry after peeing and wash off after pooping,” but without giving them anything to clean themselves with.
Ms. Liu was given very little toilet paper and not allowed to talk to or be near anyone. The windows and door to her cell were completely blocked off. During the summer months of July and August, the temperature inside her tiny cell rose quickly. The humidity was high without air circulation. Ms. Liu had a shingles outbreak and the pain kept her restless at night. She developed a fever of over 100 degrees, which lasted for a week before she was admitted to the prison hospital.
Abuse and Hard Labor in Division No. 1
After more than two months in the Correctional Division, Ms. Liu was placed on Division No. 1, Team No. 4, under the supervision of guard Sun Shuang. Sun had a long history of torturing and “transforming” Dafa practitioners, which she counted as her achievement and was very proud of it.
Sun used the implication method to weaken practitioners’ willpower. If a practitioner didn’t give up on the practice on day one of “transformation,” none of the other inmates in her cell were allowed to wash, brush their teeth, or watch TV. On the second day, none of the inmates in an additional cell were allowed to clean up or watch TV. Inmates in three cells would not be allowed to wash or watch TV on the third day, and so on until the entire team was stripped of these “privileges.”
The prisoners looked forward to washing up after a long day’s work and to relaxing and watching a bit of TV. If these things were taken away because one practitioner wouldn’t give in and renounce Dafa, they would be angry at and hostile toward her, which was exactly what Sun wanted.
The daily production quota that each prisoner had to meet was handed down by the factory. But to outperform other teams, Sun imposed a greater workload and a nearly impossible quota on the inmates on her team. The fast workers barely had time to use the toilet and eat lunch. The slow ones had to work nonstop to finish the day’s work or they’d have to sit on a small stool until 9:30 p.m., just 30 minutes before lights out. The prisoners avoided drinking anything during the day and tried their best not to use the toilet.
The prisoners were always under a lot of pressure and anxious about meeting the quota. After a while, Ms. Liu started to develop health problems and her blood pressure was consistently high.
To crack down on practitioners in possession of Dafa scriptures, the prison authorities and guards often inspected practitioners’ beds and personal belongings without prior warning. Other inmates also monitored and reported on practitioners. Ms. Liu was reported to the prison authorities in 2017 for having Dafa lectures in her possession.
Guard Li Tingting tried to make her stand facing a wall, which Ms. Liu refused to do. Deputy chief Yang Xin told the inmates monitoring Ms. Liu to “watch her closely” and threatened to handcuff Ms. Liu if she didn’t comply. When Ms. Liu pointed out it was against the law to handcuff her, Yang responded, “It’s illegal to possess Falun Dafa writings.” Ms. Liu said, “Falun Dafa teaches people to be good. How does that break the law? That inmate stole my pages. You don’t punish those who steal, just the ones who try to be good.”
Looking Out for Other Practitioners and Protesting to End the Abuse
Wang Na was one of the criminal inmates that guard Sun Shuang often used to beat practitioners. When a newly-arrived practitioner named Ms. Pei Li refused to renounce Dafa, Sun had Wang Na recruit two other inmates to help her beat Ms. Pei Li until she no longer had the strength to resist. They took Ms. Pei to the second-floor cafeteria at 7 a.m. on April 13, 2017, to beat her again.
Ms. Liu protested at the guards’ office at 9 a.m. the next day and told Sun and guard Qu Xiaoqing to stop beating Ms. Pei. They ignored her. Wang Na continued to beat Ms. Pei over the next few days. Other practitioners joined in on the protest and petitioned the authorities to stop the abuse. Sun told Ms. Pei, “Each time they protest for your sake, you get beaten again.”
Ms. Liu talked to Wang Na and advised her to not be used by the guards to commit crimes against Dafa practitioners. She explained to Wang Na that she would be held accountable for all the bad things she did even if the guards promised to reduce her term. Wang didn’t believe her and continued to help the guards.
Ms. Liu decided that she couldn’t just let it be and had to do something to expose what they did to Ms. Pei. One night in the workshop, Ms. Liu walked right up to Wang Na in front of more than 200 inmates and condemned her for beating Ms. Pei. She told how Wang Na used pliers and needles to inflict pain on practitioners.
“You’re a criminal,” Ms. Liu told Wang Na. “Who gave you the right to beat Pei Li and who is behind this? I am going to take you to court for what you did and file a lawsuit. When my family comes to visit, I will tell them to hire a lawyer and sue you.” Wang tried to evade responsibility.
After being released from Liaoning Women’s Prison, another practitioner filed a complaint against guard Sun Shuang and inmate Wang Na for abusing and mistreating imprisoned practitioners. When their deeds were exposed, Sun blamed it all on Wang Na and promised to “look into it”—the instigator all of a sudden became the investigator. Wang Na couldn’t explain herself and dared not tell the truth—she had to take all the blame and the consequences.
During family visits, Sun tried to stop Ms. Liu from telling her husband about the abuse and tried to stop Ms. Liu’s husband from hiring a lawyer to file a lawsuit. She lied behind Ms. Liu’s back and said Ms. Liu was getting into others’ business and was involved in a fight among the prisoners.
Sun’s deeds were eventually exposed and she was transferred out of Team No. 4. However, she didn’t change her ways and continued to beat and mistreat Dafa practitioners in other teams. Sun was one of two guards from Division No. 1 that got into an accident and was badly injured. Her chin was messed up.
Going Home
Ms. Liu left Liaoning’s Women’s Prison on September 22, 2019. Her gray hair, wrinkles, and injured arm were evidence of the crimes committed by the CCP.
The communist regime has persecuted Falun Dafa practitioners in China for the past 21 years and destroyed countless families and lives, including Ms. Liu’s. Hundreds of thousands of kind people lost the best years of their lives and some were tortured to death for upholding the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.
(The End)
Related reports:
Ms. Liu Ronghua Sentenced to Two Years of Forced Labor
Masanjia Labor Camp Uses “Stretching Torture” and Forced Drug Injections to Persecute Practitioners
Guards Abuse Practitioners in Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Liaoning Province
