(Minghui.org)

(Continued from Part 1)

Changes in the 610 Office

We learned my husband’s sentence was ordered by the 610 Office, an extrajudicial agency that normally does not interact with practitioners directly. When we checked the primary verdict, we noticed that the judge referred to a decision from the 610 Office. But this so-called decision did not contain an officer’s name or official seals that would authenticate it.

So I went to the 610 Office and met director Bing. He did not tell me his name in the beginning, and the other officers also had bad attitudes. They surrounded me and yelled at me because they did not expect the family member of a detained practitioner to dare come there.

I was not afraid, since I knew their actions had no legal basis. One of them pointed his finger at my nose and threatened to call the police to arrest me. I stood up and said, “You can call the police now. I’m an old woman and I am here to tell you not to do bad deeds. The divine is watching all of us. You are still young. If you face consequences for doing bad deeds, what your family will do?!”

Bing asked me to sit down so that Chen, another officer, could videorecord me as though he was interrogating an inmate. I refused, since that would violate my rights.

I showed them Document No. 39 from the Ministry of Public Security published in 2000. It listed 14 cults, and Falun Dafa was not one of them. They did not look at the document and said they had access to it. These officials said they just followed their supervisors’ orders, and repeated the CCP’s defamatory propaganda about the staged Self-Immolation Incident in Tiananmen Square. I said it was a hoax fabricated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to slander Falun Dafa. As I explained in detail, they all listened quietly.

“Just because my husband carved the words, ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance’ on gourds, you sentenced him to over eight years. That is too much,” I said. “How did he harm anyone by carving a gourd?” Chen told me I had talked enough, and suggested that I leave since there were many surveillance cameras in the building. He walked me downstairs.

Someone in the building told me it was Ke, a former officer in the 610 Office, who issued the decision on my husband’s case. Since Ke had already transferred to the Public Health Department, I found the phone number and called him. He said he no longer worked at the 610 Office and I should follow up with Bing.

The 610 Office is different from other places I’d been to. The atmosphere is very hostile and I felt uncomfortable, so I told the other practitioners I didn’t want to go there again. After they shared their thoughts, I realized it was important, so I decided to continue.

After preparing the defense statement and other documents, I selected some and mailed them. I also filed complaints against Ke and Bing. When I handed these complaints to the officials in 610 Office building, they were not as furious as I had expected. Instead, they were much more calm when they talked with me. An officer accepted the complaints and placed them in a drawer.

The 610 Office was in the same building as the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC). I went there looking for Bing to discuss my husband’s medical parole. Bing wasn’t there, so I checked the adjacent offices. In one office downstairs, I talked with someone about the persecution my husband experienced. That person listened attentively. After looking around, seeing that no one was around, he whispered to me that visiting another office might help, while pointing to it.

It was the office of a deputy CCP Party secretary, and she was easy to talk with. After hearing my story, she called Bing to come, and in front of me she asked Bing to process my case. When Bing walked me downstairs, he told the security guard to allow me in if I returned.

When I visited the 610 Office later, it became easier—it was like visiting a neighbor. Bing and the other officers were also nice to me.

To prove that the decision from the 610 Office was unlawful, I requested a Governmental Information Disclosure from the provincial Department of Justice. I asked if the district 610 Office was a judicial appraisal institution registered at the provincial Department of Justice. The Department of Justice responded saying it was not, so I provided this response and other documents to the 610 Office.

After some time, I noticed that Bing’s attitude changed. Lang, a deputy director from the prison, had once asked me about my husband following his death in prison. Lang was very hostile at that time. After he contacted the provincial and local PLAC officers, he said they were planning to escalate the persecution against Dafa.

One day before I met Bing, Lang called me again. I said since those officials had GPS, he could find me and talk with me. After a while, Lang and another officer showed up in Bing’s office.

During that meeting Lang pressured me to cremate my husband’s body. I was anxious, and unintentionally said a few sentences that were detrimental to me. Bing slightly nudged me warning me not to say wrong things that could be used by Lang against me. I immediately understood. “Since her (my) husband died, you need to handle this in a way that satisfies her,” Bing told Lang. Surprised by this, Lang and another officer became less hostile.

Bing later told me I could contact him if anyone from the prison came to talk with me again. When prison officials came to me, I invited Bing and he gave a long lecture to the prison officials on my behalf. Seeing a person having learned facts of Dafa and positioning himself well, I was happy.

My city has several districts. In the past several years, we noticed the district Bing was is in charge of had fewer persecution cases compared to other areas. In similar cases involving face-to-face clarification, practitioners in other districts could be sentenced to three years. Here a practitioner could be detained for just a few days or released directly. Several practitioners could be sentenced to prison in one district for a year in those areas, but our district had no hearings against practitioners in these few years.

Humiliated While Visiting Prison and Follow-up Truth-Clarification

After the second instance upheld the original judgment, my husband was sent to prison in 2020. My family was allowed to talk with him only three times in one year. After that, we no longer heard anything about him. My entire family was worried. I planned to visit him, but my two daughters said it was too risky for an elderly woman like me to travel alone. After a few months, I couldn’t wait any longer and made the trip myself without telling my daughters.

After I arrived, the security guard refused to allow me in. Two officers came and I said I was there to check on my husband and ask about medical parole. One of them, En, was a manager, and he asked if I also practiced Falun Dafa. I said that was irrelevant.

I then requested to talk with my husband over the phone and check on him. En did not respond so I requested to meet the prison director. He did not respond either. When they walked back in, I followed, but the security guard stopped me. “I haven’t heard from my husband for a few months. I’m very worried and we did not even celebrate the New Year,” I said. “He’s very old now. What if he’s sick? How can I survive if something happens to him?” I wept.

Several guards called me to an office. At first they just listened as I explained why I was there. After a while, another officer (probably an armed police officer) came in. He pointed his finger at my nose and swore at me. I stood up and said, “Are you trying to beat me and arrest me? Go ahead! Since my husband is already here, I’ll stay with him.” The other officers stopped him.

After a while, several officers arrived in an Iveco police van saying they were from the local police station. They checked my ID, photographed me, and wrote down my statement. Seeing that they did this to a woman in her seventies, and En not responding to my request, I was even more worried for my husband.

After I returned home, I submitted an Application for Government Information Disclosure to the police department in charge of that area. In particular, I requested information about the police officers who recorded my statement in the prison.

A few days later, someone called me saying he was the director the police station responsible for that area. My request had been received and he was calling to check on some details. So I talked with him for a while.

Two weeks later, the police station director said he was on a business trip in my city and asked if I could meet him. Thinking it wasn’t easy for him to travel such a long distance, I went to talk with him.

The director said his supervisor asked him to come and clarify my request. Yes, his police station was in charge of that area, but the people I met with that day were prison guards, and were not from his police station. The director also gave me the name and police ID of the person who led that assault. He explained that the police ID is a six-digit number, while the prison guard ID is a five-digit number. He repeatedly said those were not officers from his police station and the police van was also not theirs.

I then filed additional complaints to the prison and the provincial Prison Administration Bureau, but did not receive a response. But something like that assault never happened again and staff members were less hostile when I visited there later.

I also learned something new during that trip. Since late 2020, the prison had deprived all of my husband’s rights related to visits, phone calls, video calls, and letters, because he refused to give up Falun Dafa. We deposited 200 yuan for him to call us through video conferencing. But he was not allowed to call. He was deprived of his rights, and then he died.

Because of this, I submitted an Application for Information Disclosure to the provincial Prison Administration Bureau. In response to their reply, I filed an administrative review. “The Prison Law clearly stipulates that prison officers should uphold the right of detainees to appeal in accordance with the law. In other words, detainees have the right to plead not-guilty,” I wrote.

“Giving up his belief equates to pleading guilty. Article 7 of the Prison Law states, ‘Human dignity of a prisoner shall not be humiliated, and his personal safety, lawful properties, and rights to defence, petition, complaint and accusation as well as other rights which have not been deprived of or restricted according to law shall not be violated.’ That means my husband had the right to plead not-guilty,” I continued.

“There is also no legal provision that restricts parole for those who plead not-guilty. It is wrong to refuse my husband’s parole simply because he refused to renounce his belief. There is a legal maxim of ‘Everything which is not forbidden is allowed,’” I explained.

Because the Prison Administration Bureau did not respond to my request, I filed for an administrative review. In addition to pointing out the officials who violated the law, I reiterated that Falun Dafa is fully lawful, and that my husband also followed the law. An officer from the Prison Administration Bureau later called me saying my documents were well written. A staff member from the city Department of Justice also contacted me and said the same thing.

My Husband Passed Away

After my husband was sent to prison, I submitted documents to the prison and the justice system to petition for him.

Due to the persecution, he suffered from severe anemia and one eye was nearly blind. A medical expert said long-term anemia could lead to organ failure. This is serious because organ failure, especially heart failure, could take one’s life at any time.

As a result, I submitted an Application for Performance of Duties to the prison, provincial Prison Administrative Bureau, and the Department of Justice. Because it was an Application for Performance of Duties, personnel involved could face administrative litigation for malfeasance.

My daughter and I also went to the prison and Prison Administration Bureau numerous times and applied for my husband’s medical parole. But a year passed and the prison did not process it. So I filed a complaint and the prison sent two people to my city.

It was already noon when they arrived and they went to the district Department of Justice together with my daughter. The staff members in the Department of Justice were hostile and even tried to drive us away. Officers from the prison supported us and tried very hard to get the medical parole. But the Department of Justice insisted, saying the document format was incorrect. The prison officials had no choice but to call prison director Jiang about it. Jiang told them to fill out the form with the new format and provide it to the Department of Justice next time.

Seeing that the prison officials were very supportive, my daughter thanked them and invited them to have a meal. They said no need, and one of them said, “Jiang asked us to tell you that your mother is a very good writer. We hope she won’t file any more complaints.”

“Of course, my mother is very capable and she used travel around the country doing business. My family is counting on her,” my daughter said.

We later heard that Jiang had transferred to another position.

When the prison officials came to the Department of Justice another time, they were turned down by the Department of Justice again – the excuse was still unsatisfactory documentation.

Six months later, my husband was hospitalized again. But the prison did not call me, and only called my daughter. I heard about it and called the chief physician. The doctor said my husband was on the verge of death with three critical condition notices issued, and asked us to come.

I immediately called the prison hospital director to ask about my husband. He said my husband was all right.

“I heard he is in critical condition,” I replied.

“Who said that? Who told you that?” he asked.

“That’s not important,” I continued. “Tell me, is my husband in a critical condition?”

Seeing that I was very firm, the president softened and said I could visit the following day.

My daughter and I went there the next day. That was in 2022, and we bought protective suits because of the pandemic. But we were blocked by the quarantine on the road and we had to return home. Under my strong request, the hospital president agreed for us to visit there as a special case the following day. Before we came he told us that my husband died.

The prison said they would send a vehicle to pick us up for the visit, but I refused. “We tried to visit my husband when was he alive and we could not. Now he is dead, so what is the point of going there? Why were you afraid of our visiting earlier?” I asked.

Seeing that I wouldn’t be going, the prison sent some officials to negotiate. Among them was Education Manager Heng, who was hostile.

He said, “We need to cremate the body soon. Otherwise, his face will turn black and we will have him cremated whether you agree or not.”

I said, “Go ahead if that is your plan. My husband died in the prison for no reason. There were no family members present when he passed away. I have many questions, and that is why the cremation needs to be put on hold.”

He was silent.

Another person from the prison asked if I was having financial difficulties. If so, they could give me thousands of yuan. I said I had a pension, so I didn’t need money. I just wanted to understand what happened to my husband.

Heng said they had cooked good food for him such as noodles with eggs – probably better than what he ate at home.

“Who are you trying to fool?” I asked. “Quite a few practitioners have died in your prison. Why did you treat my husband so well?”

They sent multiple people to talk to me, but I did not budge. In the end, one of them said, “For other people, we only pay 8,000 or 9,000 yuan per death. For you, we will pay more, probably 10,000 or 20,000 yuan. But it cannot be over 50,000.”

I said there was no point in discussing this. “Had I not practiced Falun Dafa, I would have found a big stick and beat you with it. In fact, you were also deceived by the CCP to commit bad deeds, becoming victims of the persecution,” I explained. “Better think twice before you do something like this again.”

In the end, Gao from the Prison Administration Bureau contacted me and said he was in charge of the prison director. I asked why we weren’t allowed to visit my husband after three critical condition notices were issued. “I think there is malfeasance involved and I want to know what happened,” I explained. They kept my husband’s body frozen in the funeral parlor, and the prison did not contact me for a while.

A Sudden Hearing Goes Astray

After repeated requests, I was allowed to visit the prison where they showed me a surveillance video of when my husband was in prison. It was only a little over ten minutes long, and the video had been edited.

When I requested to view the entire surveillance footage, I was told the remaining videos had been deleted, and only this part was kept. Thinking something was not right about it, I submitted an Application Form for Government Information Disclosure, but no one responded.

So I called the procuratorate’s resident team in the prison and the provincial Prison Administration Bureau for access to the complete video. I made 27 phone calls in about one month, but no one responded. In the following two months, I made 299 phone calls. The calls were connected 13 times, but no one in charge was available at the time. I made a record of all these phone calls.

In late 2023, the prison hospital president called me saying the prison director would meet me on a certain date. After my children and I arrived at the hotel, we found over ten officials were already in the room. There was also a video camera pointing at the seats reserved for us. We were told this was a hearing.

Seeing the scene upset me, and I even planned to leave. With so many people there already, they had prepared this well. They did not let us know in advance because they planned to catch us off guard. I was unhappy because they did not show me the video, and now they were doing this to us. I had only my two daughters and a nephew with me. Then I thought, well, since I’m here, let’s see what they do – I’m a Falun Dafa practitioner so I’m not worried.

After the hearing started, the host introduced himself and said he was a local PLAC coordinator. He said there were four people from the prison and six officials from the local government, including representatives from the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Bing from the 610 Office was also there. I interrupted him and said I could not remember all their names. Taking a notebook from my bag, I said I needed to write down each person’s name and telephone number.

“No need to do that,” said the host.

“I have to write them down, because I’ll follow up later,” I persisted.

Seeing he had no way to stop me, he agreed.

So one by one I wrote down their names, phone numbers, workplaces, and titles. They had no choice but to tell me. When I asked the last person, he was frightened and backed off.

“No need to write me down. I am just a lawyer,” he said while waving his hand.

I found this amusing, “If you’re a lawyer, then what are you afraid of?” It seemed even lawyers knew this meeting was wrong.

It was not until later that I learned they suspected that some Falun Dafa practitioners were backing me up. In fact, as soon as we walked in, officials from the prison suspected my nephew was a Dafa practitioner and surrounded him, and asked for his name and phone number. When I asked for their information one by one, they were surprised, and did not know what to do. So no one asked my nephew any more questions.

The president of the prison hospital mainly talked about how they rescued my husband and worked on his medical parole. Cunning and hypocritical, he said they tried their best. Normally a detainee would be allowed many visits and phone calls each year. But my husband was allowed only three phone calls with my daughter. They thought they could say things at will.

These officials were well prepared and very confident before the hearing. In response to the hospital president’s statement, both my younger daughter and I stood up, and explained the numerous attempts we made to visit my husband, but failed. The prison hospital director was in a panic and could only repeat the written statement that he prepared earlier. People could tell that what he said did not match the facts. Under my strong request, he agreed to provide us with the medical record from the prison.

So my family and I went to the prison and talked with the procuratorate’s supervision office. Under my repeated requests, the prison copied the records of my husband’s hospitalization, four times in total. The officials said they spent over 100,000 yuan, and that they did their best.

There is saying, “man proposes, God disposes.” Between these medical records and voice recordings of doctors, fellow practitioners found some issues. The overall medical expense of 140,000 yuan sounded like a large amount. But detailed examinations showed 70% of the hospitalization time and 85% of the expense were spent on my husband last two hospitalizations. They were one week apart, and right before he died.

What treatments were provided during that period of time? The chief physician said they would not have admitted a patient like this, had it not been requested from the prison. This is because such a late-stage illness was incurable, even at the best hospitals in Beijing. The only thing they could do was alleviate the pain and extend the time for visits by family members. So these procedures were not medical treatments in a real sense.

During the previous two hospitalizations, on the other hand, my husband was released when his medical indicators were still in a dangerous state. “They could not be considered medical treatments either. Even getting the flu would take a longer time and cost more,” my daughter said angrily.

The officials planned to settle this during the hearing and compensate me 10,000 yuan. Over ten officials came because they wanted to intimidate us, and force us to sign the compensation agreement. But the result was different from what they expected. Seeing this, they offered a compensation of 50,000 yuan, but we declined.

In response to this atypical hearing, I again submitted an Application for Government Information Disclosure to the prison, provincial Prison Administration Bureau, and Department of Justice. No one responded. So we requested an administrative review through the provincial government. This triggered the Department of Justice to reply. But when I called the prison, no one answered. So I filed complaints, and there was no feedback.

In the mean time, I also visited the host of the hearing. From other channels, I learned he was a deputy director of the city 610 Office. Since he was the host, he needed to be responsible for this, I thought. So I visited him once a week after the hearing. In the beginning, the security guard said he was on a business trip; later they said he went out for a conference. Within six months, I visited him over 20 times and never met with him. They later said he retired and there was no need to look for him anymore. I asked who was his successor, and they said no one took his position. Two months passed and he still had no successor.

This was probably not something the officials expected. They thought they were in control of everything when they planned the hearing; in the end, it became something everyone wanted to avoid.

Bing was also at the hearing, but he did not say anything on behalf of the prison.

From Threats to Begging for an Agreement

I continued contacting the provincial Prison Administration Bureau and Department of Justice. Depending on the various situations, I sent various documents in response.

Lang was appointed the a new deputy director of the prison in May 2024. In the past, it was very hard to meet prison officials while my husband was detained. After Lang got the position, he often took the initiative to visit me. The prison is hundreds of miles away from my city. But he came with other officers and visited me three times a week. I thought it was too much, so I said I would be out of town. He said no problem since he would wait, or we could meet in the city where I went.

One time I went to the Department of Justice and it was late in the day. But he called me again. I said I was in the provincial capital city. He said no problem and he was also in this city. I thought the Department of Justice notified him about my trip and asked him to come.

Every time we talked, he mentioned cremating my husband’s body and proposed for the procuratorate to answer my questions at a later time. I said no and that we needed to resolve these issues first. It seemed the higher officials gave him a lot of pressure. It also meant that although our previous efforts did not seem to get anywhere back then, they were working in the long term.

Seeing that I would not yield, Lang tried other means to pressure me. After my husband’s death, my older daughter suffered from depression and could not work. So Lang began to harass my younger daughter, her husband, and my older son-in-law at their workplaces. Because they are government officials, Lang said their careers and even their children’s education would be negatively affected unless I gave in.

This did frighten my second son-in-law. Heavily influenced by the CCP’s brainwashing and his upcoming promotion, he was worried. Plus their daughter needed to apply for college in a few years. So he discussed with my daughter to get a divorce. When my daughter mentioned that to me, I said, “Please don’t worry. I can sever ties with you so that your family won’t be affected.” My daughter said that is not what she meant. I told her I would move back to my own place anyway, and it would benefit everyone.

Moving out and living alone was also a major decision for me. Many years ago I was a sales manager. Because I was often away on business trips and I wasn’t good at cooking, I left a check in a nearby restaurant for my two young children to eat there, and paid the bill when I returned. My husband wasn’t busy at work, so he cooked. Even after we retired, he still cooked. I moved to my younger daughter’s place right after my husband’s arrest. Now I needed to become independent. So I began to cook and my daughters often brought me food. I got used to this life, and since no one else was home, I also had more freedom.

Lang also contacted the local PLAC and threatened to mobilized the provincial justice system to solve the issue related to my husband. When other practitioners and I met, we noticed someone would follow us and eavesdrop. To reduce the pressure on other practitioners, we met less often.

Lang still continued to talk with me often. I was little annoyed, plus it made it more difficult to meet with other practitioners. So for a while, I refused to see him. My younger daughter hired an everyday lawyer to negotiate with the prison.

Because Lang often went to the workplace of my younger daughter and my sons-in-law, their coworkers became annoyed. They often told Lang to leave, since the people he was looking for were not there. My daughter and sons-in-law also lost their patience. They told Lang this was my personal decision and there was nothing they could do. Lang was no longer hostile, and he became polite.

After a while, I went to the provincial city to meet officials in the Department of Justice, Prison Administration Bureau, and the provincial government. I said my husband died three years ago. If this was not resolved, I would go to Beijing. The provincial government told me not to go Beijing, and that they would work on it. The Department of Justice later urged the Prison Administration Bureau to process my case. They also asked me for more information and contacted my lawyer.

One day earlier this year, my lawyer said the prison would increase the compensation amount, and requested a meeting. I agreed, and one day we met at my younger daughter’s workplace, including Lang and his supervisor.

In the beginning I asked for 300,000 yuan. They said that was too much. In the end, we settled on 198,000 yuan. This did not meet what I expected. But seeing them begging for an agreement and even sacrificing their business travel stipends for the compensation, I agreed.

The prison cremated my husband’s body.

Looking back over these years, I worked with many government agencies including the prison, the provincial Police Department, the provincial Prison Administration Bureau, the provincial government, the provincial Women’s Federation, the city’s PLAC, the local police department, court, the Department of Justice, the intermediate court, and the Discipline Inspection Commission. My experience is that we should not be fearful even if the officials are aggressive. If we remember who we are and that we are here to help Master save people, we will be connected with divine power. This will suppress the evil and validate Dafa. Our compassion will also help save people.

The case with the prison has now concluded. I plan to contact the Department of Justice (for declining my husband’s medical parole), the police department (for confiscating my family’s personal belongings), and the Social Security Agency (for deducting my pension). The real purpose is to tell them the facts about Dafa and the persecution, so that they stop participating in it. This will help oppose the persecution, help these officials, and validate Dafa.

These are my personal experiences. I’m nearly 80 years old and I only have a middle school education. I know that everything I did would not be possible without Master’s guidance, and support from local practitioners. I also want to thank practitioners from the Justice Forum and the selfless contributions from everyone.

(The end)

(Selected submission for the 22nd China Fa Conference on Minghui.org)