Married Couple from Rongcheng County, Hebei Province Sentenced to Forced Labor

(Clearwisdom.net) Mr. Li Xiaodun and Ms. Li Qiuxiang, husband and wife, are villagers from Guxin, Pingwang Village, Rongcheng County, Hebei Province. The local police have been constantly harassing them for years with detention, brainwashing attempts and fines, simply because they are Falun Gong practitioners. In late August 2005, she was sentenced to two years of forced labor at the Baiding Forced Labor Camp.

On June 30, 2001, Rongcheng County Public Security Bureau officers Ji Haipeng and Liu Tongqi led at least ten people in ransacking Mr. Li's home. They confiscated their Falun Dafa books and tapes, and jailed both Mr. and Ms. Li in Roncheng County Detention Center for fifteen days. Finally, they extorted 450 yuan from them, ostensibly as a charge for their meals while at the detention center.

After the fifteen days, Mr. Li was then jailed in the brainwashing center for another three months and seven days, while his wife was detained at Dingxing County Detention Center for six months. The total amount of illegal financial persecution was 2500 yuan for "meals charges" and an additional 4000-yuan in fines.

About a year later, on July 18, 2002, police officers Ji Heipeng and Zhu Zhanliang led other officers in the arrests of Mr. and Ms. Li and sent the couple to the county brainwashing center for twenty-three days, where they were each charged 50 yuan per day for food, totaling 2300 yuan.

Almost another year later, on May 15, 2003, the same officers, Ji Heipeng and Zhu Zhanliang, again led fellow officers to Mr. Li's home to take them both to the village police station, where they demanded a large sum of money. Mr. Li couldn't afford to pay the amount demanded, so the couple was forced to leave their home. The police officers subsequently forced their way into the house to search for cash and discovered 25,000 yuan that Mr. Li had borrowed at a high rate of interest, money that was intended to finance a future business venture. The police were just going to walk away with the cash, but because Mr. Li's child insisted on getting a receipt, the police gave him a receipt for "temporary holding." To this day, however, the officers have not returned any of the 25,000 yuan.

As a result of this persecution, Mr. and Ms. Li were forced into homelessness and destitution for over two years. Then they heard the Baoding Public Security Bureau announcement that the practitioners who had left their homes were now welcome to return, after first reporting to the Public Security Bureau. The announcement also said there would be "no brainwashing class, detention, penal court or any other sort of punishment," so they returned home on July 16, 2005.

Little did they know that this so-called amnesty was just a lie that was used to capture them. The County Public Security Bureau promptly arrested them the day after they arrived home. Mr. Li was fined 2000 yuan, and is currently detained in the brainwashing center. Ms. Li was detained in the county detention center for thirty days. Then in late August 2005, she was sentenced to two years of forced labor at the Baiding Forced Labor Camp, where she is currently imprisoned without visitation rights.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2005/8/30/109469.html

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