(Minghui.org) Minghui.org previously reported on Ms. Liu Hongxia’s death, which came days after she was denied medical parole. New information has emerged to provide more details about the case against the Dalian City, Liaoning Province, resident for her faith in Falun Gong.
Ms. Liu was arrested on October 28, 2021, and secretly sentenced to four years on July 13, 2022. She was hospitalized in late August 2022 and moved to an intensive care unit two months later. Her family applied for medical parole for her on October 25, but their application was denied. Ms. Liu died on November 8, 2022. She was 47.
The new information available concerned Ms. Liu’s husband, Mr. Yuan Yizhi’s request for open government information regarding the police agency that verified the prosecution evidence against his wife.
Judge Guo Danhua of the Ganjingzi District Court stated in the verdict: “The anti-cult office of the Dalian City Police Department verified that the books, magazines, flash cards, bank notes, and MP3 players confiscated from Liu Hongxia’s home all contained information about Falun Gong and materials defaming the Chinese Communist Party and China and were thus deemed cult propaganda.”
However, no law in China has criminalized Falun Gong nor labels it as a cult. Additionally, by law, only an independent, third-party agency is authorized to examine and verify forensic evidence. The Dalian City Police Department, however, is the supervising agency of the Baiyunjie Police Station that arrested Ms. Liu. Her husband submitted an open information request to the Dalian City Police Department in early August 2022 and received the following response, dated August 18, 2022, and titled “Dalian City Police Department Notice of Non-existence of Requested Government Information.” The response is as follows:
“Yuan Yizhi,
We received your request on August 8, 2022 asking to 1) make available the anti-cult office’s certificate of qualification for verifying forensic evidence and the scope of its responsibilities as approved by the Liaoning Province Public Security Bureau; 2) make available the names of the persons who were certified to verify forensic evidence as approved by the Liaoning Province Public Security Bureau and their specific responsibilities. After conducting a search of information, we find that the requested information does not exist. We hereby notify you as such per item 4 of Article 36 of the Open Government Information Regulations.
If you believe this notice infringes upon your legal rights, you can request an administrative reconsideration with the Dalian Municipal Government or the Liaoning Province Public Security Bureau within 60 days of receiving this notice. You could also file an administrative reconsideration request with the Dalian Railway Transportation Court within six months of receiving this notice.”
[Note: Article 36 the referenced regulation states that government agencies shall reply to open government information requests in accordance with the following circumstances: 4) when the requested information is not found, inform the applicants that the government information does not exist.]
Mr. Yuan did request an administrative reconsideration, but all of the agencies said the requested government information does not exist. His wife’s body is still in a morgue as he continues to seek justice for her.
Some Thoughts
The Dalian City Police Department’s “verification” of the prosecution evidence was used to support the wrongful conviction of Ms. Liu. When her husband sought information about the legitimacy and credibility of the police department as an authorized forensic sciences organization, the police department told him that such information does not exisit.
The non-existence of the requested information insinuates at least three things in the prosecution of Ms. Liu: the prosecution evidence allegedly to be verified by the police department was likely forged and inadmissible; the Ganjingzi Procuratorate and the Ganjingzi Court broke the law when they used the police-verified evidence to indict and sentence Ms. Liu; the police department was shirking responsibilities when it contradicted itself in saying that they did not have any division to do forensic evidence verification.
The contradiction is likely intentional. The procuratorate and the court needed “evidence” to sentence Ms. Liu, who broke no law in merely exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief. So the police department “verified” evidence to justify the prison sentence. But when Ms. Liu’s husband probed the matter, the police department denied its “verification” role to avoid further inquiries from him; otherwise they’d have to answer questions such as when they established the anti-cult office, based on what law, and what personnel were certified to examine forensic evidence.
The police department appeared to be following the law in issuing a timely response to Mr. Yuan’s open information request. The answer, namely the “non-existence” of the requested information, however, only served to prove that the police-verified evidence against Ms. Liu should never have been used to sentence her in the first place. The police department’s denial also exposed the absurdity of the CCP’s baseless persecution of Falun Gong, which has been going on since July 1999.
Mr. Yuan was courageous in sharing his experience with the public three years after his wife’s death and his open government information requests. Ms. Liu was one of the countless Falun Gong practitioners who, over the past 26 years, have been sentenced for their faith without any legal basis. We encourage more practitioners and their families to share what they have gone through, to further expose the illegality of the persecution.
Related Article in Chinese:
Related Reports:
Wrongfully Convicted Woman Dies Days After Being Denied Medical Parole
Wrongfully Convicted Woman in Critical Condition, Medical Parole Request Denied
Woman Suffers Memory Loss after Injection in Hospital, Sentenced to Four Years for Her Faith
Ailing Woman Faces Trial in the Hospital for Her Faith, Judge Obstructs Legal Representation
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