(Minghui.org) A Qingyang City, Gansu Province resident was admitted to prison in April 2023 to serve a 12-year term for his faith in Falun Gong. His family was not allowed to see him until two months later.
Mr. Wang Liqun, in his early 60s, filed a criminal complaint in July 2015 against Jiang Zemin, the now-deceased former head of the Chinese communist regime who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. The police had intended to arrest Mr. Wang upon learning of the criminal complaint, but he evaded them. They hunted him for the next seven years before tracking him down in Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province. He was arrested on October 19, 2022 and sentenced to 12 years following a court hearing on February 27, 2023. He appealed with the Qingyang City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold his original verdict. Mr. Wang was transferred from the Qingcheng Detention Center to the Seventh Division of Lanzhou Prison on April 29, 2023.
The day after Mr. Wang’s prison admission, his son and daughter went there and requested a visit with him. A guard said that as long as their father didn’t renounce Falun Gong, they wouldn’t be granted any visits. The guard told them to wait at least three months or up to a year, before they could call the prison to schedule a visit. Moments later, a person who claimed to be from the prison’s “anti-cult” department arrived and asked Mr. Wang’s children about their attitudes towards Falun Gong, and where they worked. They refused to answer, saying that it had nothing to do with their family visitation requests.
Mr. Wang’s family returned to the prison with his lawyer on May 27, 2023, demanding that they be allowed to visit him. The guard who received them spent a long time verifying the lawyer’s identity and even called his law firm to confirm his employment there. Then the guard went inside, with information about the lawyer, to seek approval from his supervisor. He returned 15 minutes later and said his supervisor had refused the lawyer’s visitation request. The stated reason was that Mr. Wang had just been admitted to the prison and was still undergoing “thought transformation” (meaning to force him to renounce Falun Gong). He was thus not allowed any visits unless he renounced Falun Gong.
Mr. Wang’s lawyer immediately called the provincial prison administration bureau to file a complaint against the prison. He was referred to the prosecutor-in-residence at the prison. After he spoke to the prosecutor, the guard who talked to him earlier showed him a piece of paper claimed to be written by Mr. Wang moments ago, which stated that he didn’t want to meet with the lawyer and that he gave up his right to file a motion to reconsider his case.
The lawyer doubted the validity of the note as he suspected that Mr. Wang might have been forced to write it if he indeed wrote the words himself. As they were talking, the guard suddenly lost his temper, accusing the lawyer of defaming him. A group of guards surrounded the lawyer and Mr. Wang’s family, demanding to see the IDs of the family. After that, the guards ordered them to leave. The lawyer and the family went to the prison prosecutor’s office, who told them to write a brief case description and said he would contact them when he had further information.
The lawyer and Mr. Wang’s family returned to the prison at around 9 a.m. the next morning. The prosecutor claimed that the prison was following proper policy in denying their requests to see Mr. Wang. The same guard who lost his temper then showed the lawyer a different statement, also claimed to be written by Mr. Wang, which still expressed the intention to give up filing a motion to reconsider the case and that he did not want meet with the lawyer.
The lawyer asked when he would ever be allowed to visit Mr. Wang. The guard again replied that it had to be after Mr. Wang renounced Falun Gong and that the lawyer had to wait for further notification by the prison.
The lawyer and the family next went to the provincial prison administration bureau at around 10 a.m., and expressed their concern about the prison’s forcing Mr. Wang to write the statement against his will. The lawyer said that Mr. Wang had been very firm in appealing his case and there was no reason that he would suddenly give up the appeal. The bureau director promised to help mediate the issue and make arrangement for Mr. Wang’s visitation.
At around 3 p.m., Mr. Wang’s family received a call, telling them they could come to the prison on the designated visitation day to see Mr. Wang.
When Mr. Wang’s daughter and his lawyer went to the prison on June 8, 2023, the visitation day for the Seventh Division, however, a guard refused the daughter’s visitation request. He said that she had to present a document issued by her local police station to show her relationship with Mr. Wang and that the current document issued by her village committee was not acceptable. The lawyer said that the prison had already checked the document when she came the first time in April 2023; they didn’t say anything about it back then and it was obvious that they were deliberately making things difficult for the family now. The guard then said that the daughter also had to obtain proof from the police that she didn’t practice Falun Gong herself, or she wouldn’t be allowed to visit her father.
It’s about 460 km (290 miles) from the family’s home in Qingyang to Lanzhou, where the prison is located. The family spent several thousand yuan traveling back and forth three times to the prison, but still weren’t allowed to visit Mr. Wang.
Mr. Wang’s family came to the prison the fourth time a week later on June 15, another visitation day. The guard on duty approved the visitation this time after checking their IDs and related documents. But after calling the Seventh Division to make arrangements for the visit, he again denied their request, with the excuse that the directors of the anti-cult department and the political department who had to approve the visitation weren’t in office that day.
The family then contacted the director of the provincial prison administration bureau, who promised to help arrange a visitation. With his help, the family finally met with Mr. Wang that afternoon.
The visitation lasted ten minutes before being cut short. Two inmates sat on each side of Mr. Wang to monitor the entire conversation. The inmates were also arranged by the guards to monitor Mr. Wang around the clock in the cell and they would beat and verbally abuse him at will.
It’s not clear whether the family were allowed to visit Mr. Wang again after that.
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