(Minghui.org) A 63-year-old man in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province was jailed for four years simply because he practices Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999. He reached retirement age not long after his release in 2020, but was denied pension despite over 40 years of service.
Mr. Yang Xiaogang took up Falun Gong in 2014, after he fell ill and could no longer work at the Jiamusi Highway Management Station. He sought many medical treatments, but nothing worked until he began to practice Falun Gong. Grateful for the benefits, he used his spare time to raise awareness about the persecution. Amazed by his positive changes, his wife, Ms. Li Yulan, also became a practitioner.
Around 8:30 a.m. on January 22, 2016, just as Mr. Yang returned home from working a night shift, he was seized by a police officer. Mr. Yang then noticed that another male officer was also at his home. They said they were from the Xilin Police Station. One was named Shao Chunhai and the other was surnamed Tian. Mr. Yang later found out the two officers stayed outside of his home the entire night and they barged in as soon as his wife, Ms. Li, opened the door in the morning.
After Shao made a call, two officers from the Jiamusi City Police Department and one agent from the Jiamusi City 610 Office came. The 610 Office agent asked the couple when they started to practice Falun Gong. Mr. Yang replied that they started two years ago. The agent then left and ordered officer Xue from the police department to take charge of the matter.
Xue searched every corner of the couple’s home and spilled ink on their living room floor. The couple’s Falun Gong books, printer, computer and two cell phones were confiscated.
The couple were taken to the Xilin Police Station and interrogated in separate rooms. The police questioned Mr. Yang whether he knew practitioners Ms. Cui Xiuyun and Ms. Wang Shuying. Mr. Yang said no.
The police also asked whether Mr. Yang had filed a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the Chinese Communist Party who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong. During that period, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners around the globe filed criminal complaints against Jiang, given a new policy by the Chinese Supreme People’s Procuratorate and Supreme People’s Court that they would accept any case filed with them. Mr. Yang responded that he had just submitted his complaint.
At around 5 p.m., officer Shao gave the couple a few pieces of paper, saying that they would release them as soon as they signed the documents. After the couple signed as instructed, the police took them to a local hospital for physical exams. They then brought the couple back to the Xilin Police Station, before taking them to the Jiamusi City Detention Center.
On the next morning, the inmate in Mr. Yang’s cell ordered him to write a statement to renounce Falun Gong. Mr. Yang refused to comply.
An inmate stomped on Mr. Yang’s lower back and caused injury to his right leg. He was released on bail due to the injuries after 15 days of detention. Ms. Li remained detained and the police submitted her case to the Xiangyang District Procuratorate.
Mr. Yang submitted his persecution account to Minghui.org upon returning home. In mid-May 2016, Li Zhongyi of the Anti-Cult Office at the Jiamusi City Police Department verified with him that he indeed wrote the complaint. Li also tried to talk him out of hiring a lawyer for his wife.
Mr. Yang was arrested again on May 23, 2016. His elderly mother went to the detention center to visit him and Ms. Li, but was turned away. She had a car accident on the way home and died.
Li Zhongyi talked to Ms. Li three times and threatened to sentence her to prison if she didn’t renounce Falun Gong. The couple’s family were extorted hundreds of thousands of yuan by the authorities. Yet the Xiangyang District Procuratorate still indicted the couple and the Xiangyang District Court held a hearing of their case at the detention center.
The couple received their verdicts on September 1, 2016. Mr. Yang was sentenced to four years and Ms. Li was sentenced to three years with a five-year probation. Both of them were fined 20,000 yuan each. Ms. Li was released after the trial. The police not only withdraw a total of 40,000 yuan from the couple’s bank account to cover their fines, but also took out an additional amount.
Mr. Yang was transferred to the Hulan Prison on March 1, 2017. Just days after he was released on May 3, 2020, the local justice bureau called him and forced him to sign a statement to “stay away from Falun Gong.”
Four officers from the justice bureau, local residential committee and police station harassed Mr. Yang at home again in November 2020, and forced him to sign another statement, promising “not to attend any assembly or spread information [about Falun Gong].”
As Mr. Yang reached retirement age shortly after his prison release, he went to the social security bureau to apply for his pension, only to be told that his pension fund had been seized by the Jiamusi City Political and Legal Affairs Committee and 610 Office. He has not received a payment since.
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