(Minghui.org) A 45-year-old man in Huludao City, Liaoning Province lost his appeal against a 4-year prison sentence on August 1, 2023. His wife has now filed complaints against the six police officers who had arrested him.
Mr. Gong Yubo was arrested on January 21, 2022, nine days before the 2022 Chinese New Year. The Liaozhong District Procuratorate indicted him on December 6, 2022 and accused him of publishing 208 articles on the PureInsight website (a site for Falun Gong practitioners to share their cultivation experiences) and three articles on the Minghui website, between 2002 and 2022, with various pen names including “Xiao Lian,” “Shi Fangxing,” “Lan Xin” and “Yu Bo.”
Mr. Gong, a Falun Gong practitioner, was charged with “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” a standard pretext used to criminalize Falun Gong.
The Liaozhong District Court sentenced Mr. Gong to four years with a 20,000-yuan fine on May 18, 2023. Judge Duan Xiaoguang presided over his trial. Also present were judges Tao Sha and Zhang Wenfei, Jin Jian (assistant to judges), and clerk Guo Shuang.
Mr. Gong appealed his sentence, and the Shenyang City Intermediate Court ruled on August 1, 2023 to uphold his wrongful conviction. Presiding judge Wen Xiaoxia, along with judges Kong Xianglai and Song Yongzheng, handled the appeal.
On October 4, 2023, Mr. Gong’s wife, Ms. Xue Mingli, filed complaints against the police officers who had arrested him, including Shen Yutao, Jin Guanghu, Song Shaodong, Yang Da, Li Anfu, and Han Xuesong. She accused them of illegally searching her home, detaining her husband without any legal basis, and committing the crime of dereliction of duty.
The complaints were submitted to the email of the Shenyang City Police Department Chief, who oversaw the six police officers. Ms. Xue also filed the same complaints on the following online appeals platforms run by different government agencies:
12337 (run by the central Political and Legal Affairs Committee, which oversees the persecution of Falun Gong)12389 (designated to receive complaints against law enforcement)12309 (run by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate)12380 (run by the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party)
Ms. Xue demanded that relevant government agencies investigate the six police officers’ violation of legal procedures and order them to return the lawful assets confiscated from her home during her husband’s arrest, including Mr. Gong’s ID and 2,580 yuan in cash, as well as a bank card with a balance of 1.8 million yuan.
Ms. Xue said that Mr. Gong’s arrest left their family in a dire situation. With him being the sole breadwinner, she struggled to provide for their college-age daughter and one-year-old son. Her bedridden father, who lives with them, also relied on her for care.
Arrest and Sentencing
On January 21, 2022, nine days before the 2022 Chinese New Year, Mr. Gong returned home from working out of town to spend the holiday with his family. Wang Shufeng, the village secretary, Tian Changwu, the deputy chief of the Shaheying Village Police Station, another police officer, as well as a person who claimed to be from the pandemic prevention center, descended upon his home.
Tian and his fellow officer were not in uniform. The license plate of their car was covered by a surgical mask. Without showing a search warrant, they arrested Mr. Gong and confiscated his Falun Gong books, computer and cell phone. Ms. Xue repeatedly asked what they wanted by raiding her home, but no one answered.
For the next five months, Ms. Xue went to various local police departments, procuratorates and courts, to inquire about her husband’s case, but to no avail. The authorities claimed that Mr. Gong’s case was related to “state secrets” and refused to provide any information about his situation.
It was not until June 16 that Ms. Xue found out through the Huludao City Appeals Office that he had been put under house arrest and that the Shenyang City Public Security Bureau and Xinmin City Police Department were in charge of his case.
Ms. Xue went to the Xinmin Police Department on June 20 to submit documents seeking his release. The officers refused to meet with her or accept the materials. They claimed that his case was related to state secrets and they couldn’t reveal anything to her.
She next went to the local police department’s appeals office, the Xinmin City Appeals Office, the Xinmin Disciplinary Inspection Commission and the Xinmin City Political and Legal Affairs Committee, to submit the materials, but was refused by all agencies, on grounds that the case wasn’t under their jurisdiction.
Ms. Xue lastly went to the Xinmin City Procuratorate and was received by prosecutor Liu Tiebing. Liu was very rude to her. He told her that Mr. Gong was held at a hotel, but he couldn’t let her see him or reveal the address to her. Liu also refused to let her review his case documents or be his family defender.
On July 20, 2022, Mr. Gong was transferred from the secret hotel to the Xinmin City Detention Center on criminal detention. His arrest was approved on August 10.
Ms. Xue later hired a lawyer for him. After several rounds of communication with the police and the detention center, the lawyer received approval to visit Mr. Gong on August 1, 2022. But when he went to the detention center at the specified time, the guards denied the visitation, claiming that the police were talking to Mr. Gong.
Under the lawyer’s strong protest, the guards agreed for him to visit Mr. Gong on the condition that he stay in Xinmin City for seven days for COVID-19 quarantine.
The lawyer and Ms. Xue made three trips to Xinmin, but the authorities always found excuses to deny their visits.
The Liaozhong District Procuratorate indicted Mr. Gong on December 6, 2022. The Liaozhong District Court sentenced him to four years with a 20,000-yuan fine on May 18, 2023.
Wife’s Plight
Mr. Gong’s father-in-law is 71 this year. He suffered a stroke in 2019 and Mr. Gong borrowed money from his manager at work to pay for his surgery. Although his father-in-law survived, he became incapacitated. Ms. Xue and her mother have to care for him around the clock, including feeding him, turning his body, and taking him out for walks.
During the 2023 Chinese New Year, Ms. Xue said that while other families were celebrating the holiday together, she and her family were in no mood for the new year, after having spent a year living in fear and worrying about her husband. “I don’t know if my husband is safe, whether he has enough clothes to keep him warm and whether he is being tortured,” she said. “I don’t know how long we will have to suffer like this.”
“When my husband was arrested, our toddler son was still little. Now he has learned to say ‘daddy.’ But his daddy isn’t there to be with him, which pains me when I look at my baby’s sweet, innocent face.
“We still have tens of thousands of yuan of debt to pay. We depended on my husband to provide for us. With my father and young child to take care of, I’m not sure how I can manage to make ends meet without him.”
Related reports:
Liaoning Man Sentenced to Four Years for Publishing Articles on Overseas Falun Gong Websites
Communist Regime Prosecutor: “A Falun Gong Case Is More Severe Than Murder or Arson”
Sole Breadwinner Arrested for His Faith, Detained Incommunicado for Two Months and Counting
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