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Cao Dong's Wife Tells the Story of His Detention in Tianshui City Prison, Gansu Province By Yang Xiaojing in Mainland China
(Clearwisdom.net) I am the wife of Cao Dong, a Falun Gong practitioner
from Beijing. On May 21, 2006, Cao Dong met with Edward McMillan-Scott,
Vice-President of the European Parliament, and told him about the brutal
persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. Two hours after the meeting,
Cao Dong was arrested by State Security agents. Before the Chinese New Year's
Eve, Cao Dong was sentenced to five years in prison. His defense lawyer said
that the only "evidence" used to sentence him was a false oral
confession. During the latter part of May 2007, Cao Dong was sent to the Tianshui Prison
in Gansu Province. Since the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue was being held in
Europe at that time, his lawyer told me that his original sentence was unchanged
and the ruling was kept secret. Nobody told me where my husband had been sent.
The court officials told Cao Dong's parents that they had been
"criticized" and could not be told anything. Cao Dong's lawyer was
under a lot of pressure so he suggested that the parents go to the local police
department to inquire. In January of this year, Cao Dong overcame many difficulties and was able to
send out an appeal letter from within the prison. Actually, right after his
meeting with Edward McMillan-Scott, he was arrested and detained in the Beijing
Security Bureau Detention Center. He was handcuffed to a chair for more than a
month. The cruel torture caused a massive hemorrhage in his stomach. Since Mr.
McMillan-Scott gave the lecture in Hong Kong about China's human rights, the
officials from the State Security Bureau cursed my husband as a"traitor." One month later, because my husband refused to "admit his guilt,"
the police went to his parents. They deceived his parents by telling them that
Cao Dong had committed a big crime and his sentence would be reduced only if he
cooperated. Not only did the police fail to tell them the truth about Cao Dong
being arrested for meeting with overseas officials who were only concerned about
China's human rights and the fact that he didn't do anything illegal, they also
threatened his parents. His elderly parents begged Cao Dong with tears in their
eyes, and asked him to cooperate with the police to provide them with a false
confession. They also said that they would die in front of him if he refused to
do so. The State Security Bureau officials recorded this scene and sent the
video to Cao Dong to further threaten him. They told him that if he refused to
cooperate, they would arrest all of his friends on his mailing list book that
they seized. At the same time, they promised him that he would be released if he
would cooperate. This was how the false confession was coerced. With the
confession and Cao Dong's meeting with Mr. McMillan-Scott causing the critics of
China's human rights to affect China's reputation, he was sentenced to five
years in prison. In May of 2007, Cao Dong was secretly sent to the Tianshui Prison in Gansu
Province. This prison is the headquarters for persecuting Falun Gong in Gansu
Province. All the practitioners in the province who refused to renounce Falun
Gong were sent there for concentrated persecution. Liu Zhirong, a practitioner
who intercepted TV signals to broadcast a Falun Gong
truth-clarification video, was tortured to death within a month of
detention here. Those practitioners who refused to renounce Falun Gong were
tortured in various ways: sleep deprivation, brainwashing, deprivation of their
normal rights (such as taking breaks, purchasing daily necessities, family
visits or writing to family members). Cao Dong was being pressured to "obey
the law," which meant stating that he approved of his sentence, or in other
words, to admit that telling people the truth is a crime. Cao Dong refused to
accept his sentence and we are trying to file an appeal. As his wife, I started to look for a defense lawyer for him in August,
2007...I consulted Lawyer Li Heping. He told me that this kind of case would
bring a lot of pressure to whoever agreed to take it on, and it was better to
hire two lawyers. At the end of September 2007, Lawyer Li Heping was beaten up
by police for several hours. All the materials that I gave him were taken away.
Practitioners Ms. Zhuang Yanhong and Ms. Xiang Guilan, who accompanied me during
the visit to consulting lawyers, were arrested and sentenced to forced labor. My
home was ransacked. Although the police didn't find any Falun Gong materials,
they still took me away to a hotel. They interrogated me and asked me if I still
practiced Falun Gong, or if I participated in any "illegal
activities." Liu Yugang, a section chief in the Dongcheng District Police
Department, told me that they would detain Cao Dong in Gansu Province and me in
Beijing. They would not allow the two of us to see each other. It was obvious
that they have been covering up Cao Dong's case, and all the regular legal
procedures were blocked. Recently, during my trip to Gansu Province, the police still continued their
surveillance of me. Our friend Xu Na was released from prison in 2006 after a
five-year sentence. Last year, local police asked her to guarantee not to talk
to any foreigners during the Olympic games. On January 26, 2008, Xu Na and her
husband, Yu Zhou were arrested. On February 6, 2008, Yu Zhou was tortured to
death at the age of 42. I heard that many practitioners in Beijing were arrested
for only one reason - to guarantee that the foreign visitors would not run
into anyone who would tell them the facts. I hope that the international community will pay attention to the situation
of Falun Gong practitioners detained in the Tianshui Prison. I also hope that
other related organizations will come to this prison to investigate the human
rights status of detained Falun Gong practitioners and the cause of Liu
Zhirong's death. Cao Dong's address: P. O. Box #100, Education Department Responsible police officer, Liu Jiantiao: 86-938-8278945 April 8, 2008
Posting date: 5/5/2008 |