(SAN FRANCISCO AIRPORT) Released after three years of imprisonment in China, Charles Li of Menlo Park was warmly welcomed home by his family, friends and about a hundred supporters at San Francisco International Airport Saturday morning.

Li, 40, a U.S. citizen and practitioner of Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa), a controversial Chinese spiritual movement that has been banned by the Chinese government since 1999, was arrested at the Guangzhou Airport when he flew to China on Jan. 22, 2003.

Neatly dressed in a black sport coat and dress shirt as he arrived in the international terminal on a United flight, Li appeared to be in decent shape. Greeted eagerly by his fiancee, Yeong Ching, he was quickly swarmed by the Chinese media. Well-wishers holding Falun Gong banners burst into song.

"I'm glad to see his spirit, it's very up," said family friend Sherry Zhang, a Los Altos resident. "I was a little bit worried after three years."

Zhang said after his airport arrest and a one-day trial at the Yangzhou Intermediate People's Court, Li was sentenced to three years in a Nanjing prison for his intention to expose human rights violations against Falun Gong practitioners by tapping into state-controlled Chinese television.

He had hoped to clarify government-broadcasted propaganda against Falun Gong, Zhang said.

"People are getting tortured and dying, tens of thousands of them, but it doesn't get reported because it happens behind closed doors," she said. "It's scary, actually. The media is considered the mouth piece of the government."

Because Li is a U.S. citizen, the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai was able to communicate with Li for a half-hour every month, something his family was not allowed to do.

But through the consulate, the family received Li's 96-page "Letter from a Nanjing Jail." Zhang said he wrote the letter in May 2003 while handcuffed, and it was only sent after he went on an eight-day hunger strike.

The letter, Zhang said, spoke of physical abuse, including beatings and sleep deprivation, forced labor to make shoes and Christmas lights, mental "re-education" sessions for hours and prohibition from practicing Falun Gong.

By his third year, she said, the consulate told the family that Li was experiencing shortness of breath and an elevated heart rate.

Members of the San Mateo County chapter of Amnesty International, who have helped family and friends campaign for Li's release, were also on hand to welcome him back.

[...]

Speaking to reporters, Li said he returned with mixed feelings, happy to be released but concerned for the torture that still continues and the injustice done to him.

"I have to find my feet first, find my own legs, and in the meantime I'll search for the justice," he said. "They have never let me show my evidence to prove my innocence."

Asked what he missed most about the U.S., he had just two words.

"Freedom, truly."

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_3427020

Posting date: 1/23/2006
Original article date: 1/23/2006
Category: News & Media Reports

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