(Minghui.org) Mr. Li Yushu, from Tangshan City, Hebei Province, completed a ten-year prison term on February 25, 2022. His pension was suspended after he was released. His repeated requests to have his retirement benefits reinstated were rejected.
The financial persecution of Mr. Li, a retiree of the Tangshan City Thermal Power, is a continuation of the communist regime’s attack on him because he practices Falun Gong. He was arrested while shopping on February 25, 2012, during a police sweep in which about 40 other local Falun Gong practitioners were arrested. The police seized the nearly 9,000 yuan in cash Mr. Li had on him. They raided his home and confiscated five computers, over 80,000 yuan in cash, and some Falun Gong-related items. His wife was also arrested, but was released hours later.
During the trial on August 28, 2012, presiding judge Xu Tianpeng of the Fengrun District Court interrupted Mr. Li’s defense lawyer numerous times. Whenever the lawyer brought up the fact that no enacted law in China criminalizes Falun Gong and that China voted in favor of the “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” in 1948, Xu said there was no need to talk about the international declaration; and if he wanted to discuss it, he should go to the U.S. Xu also told the lawyer to talk about the law with the People’s Congress.
The prosecution evidence against Mr. Li included more than 820 calendars and over 4,000 pendants which had Falun Gong messages that were allegedly confiscated from Mr. Li’s home. He said the police fabricated evidence because he only had two calendars and less than 20 pendants. He said they he were his property and he broke no laws by owning them.
Xu sentenced Mr. Li to ten years. Mr. Li was released on February 25, 2022 and the Xicheng District Social Security Center in Beijing suspended his pension soon afterwards. The Beijing agency manages pension benefits for Datang Group, the parent company of Mr. Li’s former employer.
Mr. Li made numerous requests to the Xicheng District Social Security Center but the staff refused to reinstate his pension.
Prior to Mr. Li’s prison sentence, he was arrested in December 2001 and put in the Tangshan City First Detention Center. He was soon released, only to be arrested again on January 25, 2002, when he paid a toll on a highway. He was taken to the Kaiping District Police Department. He went on a hunger strike in protest and was moved to the Tangshan City First Detention Center on the fifth day. He remained on a hunger strike and was force-fed on February 1, 2002. He was released after his condition became critical.
The police arrested Mr. Li again in April 2002 and threatened to arrest all his family members if he refused to give details about the other practitioners. His wife, Ms. Wang Rui, was arrested days later. Mr. Li managed to escape, but the police soon captured him and put him in the Tangshan City First Detention Center. He was given two years of forced labor at the Hehuakeng Labor Camp.
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