(Minghui.org) Ms. Jin Hong’s family has only been allowed to visit her in person four times and talk to her on the phone twice after she was sent to prison in March 2021 to serve four years for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Jin Hong
During the few visits, Ms. Jin’s husband noticed that she was tortured beyond recognition. He made numerous requests with the prison authorities and various government agencies to investigate and hold accountable her perpetrators, but to no avail. On November 7, 2023, he submitted yet another request to the Liaoning Province Prison Administration Bureau, requesting it ensure his wife’s safety so she could survive the last month of her prison term. Ms. Jin is due to be released on December 3, 2023.
The uphill battle to seek justice for Ms. Jin has taken a toll on her husband’s health. He exhibited stroke symptoms and can no longer work. But he believes justice will prevail and is calling on kindhearted people to help uphold justice for his wife.
Repeatedly Denied Family Visits
Ms. Jin, a 56-year-old Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, resident, was arrested on December 4, 2019, for distributing calendars containing information about Falun Gong. She was sentenced to four years by the Tiexi District Court in September 2020 and was transferred to Liaoning Province Second Women’s Prison on March 18, 2021. She endured heinous torture in prison for not renouncing her faith and her leg was severely injured.
Her husband went to the prison several times between July and August 2021 after an insider described how she was tortured. He was allowed to talk to her on the phone for one minute on August 31, 2021. When he was finally allowed to see her for the first time in prison on September 22, 2021, he was shocked—she was almost unrecognizable. She looked haggard and emaciated. Her voice was very weak. She walked slowly with a limp. The visit ended in ten minutes.
After the visit, Ms. Jin’s husband demanded the prison take measures to protect her, but to no avail.
Due to the pandemic in 2022, the prison imposed limits on visitations and at one point even completely stopped in-person visitation. Ms. Jin’s husband was only allowed to talk to her on the phone once in 2022.
Before the Chinese New Year in January 2023, the prison opened up for in-person visits. When Ms. Jin’s husband asked to visit her, the prison guards approved his request, on the condition that he persuade her to renounce Falun Gong. During the 10-minute visit in January 2023, he was devastated to see that in the more than one and a half years since his last visit, Ms. Jin still limped.
When he returned to the prison on February 21, 2023, for the monthly visit, prison officer Ji Xueqi refused to let him see her. He went to the prison every month and was only allowed to see her two more times at the time of this report, in April and July 2023, for ten minutes each time.
Minghui.org has reported in detail Ms. Jin’s husband’s earlier efforts to seek justice for her. This report covers his latest efforts.
Administrative Ligation Against Prison in Limbo
Around June 2023, Ms. Jin’s husband filed four separate administrative lawsuits against four defendants, including the Liaoning Province Second Women’s Prison, the Liaoning Province Prison Administration Bureau, the Liaoning Province Judicial Bureau, and the Liaoning Province Government. He submitted the three lawsuits against the latter three defendants to the Railway Transportation Court in Shenyang City but was told that he could only file one lawsuit against government agencies at a time and must remove the Liaoning Province Government from his defendants’ list. The court said the government as a whole enjoys immunity and cannot be sued.
Ms. Jin’s husband had no choice, so he decided to sue the Liaoning Province Prison Administration Bureau first. There is no update on the case status at the time of this report.
His lawsuit against the prison was submitted to the Dadong District Court in Shenyang City. The case was docketed on June 27, 2023, and Guo Yu is the presiding judge.
On August 7, Guo called Ms. Jin’s husband and told him to report to the court at 2 p.m. the next day. He thought he was summoned to attend a pre-trial meeting and went to the court on time as instructed. Guo told him that her court handles cases against administrative organs, but his defendant, the prison, is a judicial organ. Ms. Jin’s husband was misled by her words and agreed to sign paperwork to withdraw his lawsuit against the prison.
He later consulted a legal expert and realized he had been duped by judge Guo. The legal expert pointed out:
- Prisons are administrative agencies subjected to the “Government Information Disclosure Regulations.”- Prisons’ punishment of inmates is part of their administrative functions, not criminal litigation functions, and should be subject to the “Government Information Disclosure Regulations.”- Prison affairs belong to the type of information subject to the “Government Information Disclosure Regulations.”
Given the above, Ms. Jin’s husband went to the Dadong District Court on August 9 to submit his statement to nullify his signature to withdraw his case against the prison. He also requested an open hearing. Judge Guo agreed to reinstate the case but said there would not be an open hearing.
Ms. Jin’s husband then requested that Guo be recused from the case and filed a complaint against her for committing dereliction of duty. When he called her later, she said she was no longer in charge of the case, but claimed she did not know who took her place. He then called the court and was transferred to Guo’s supervisor, Qi Likai.
Qi claimed he was not aware of the case. When Ms. Jin’s husband called again, Qi did not answer the phone.
The case has rested with the court for nearly five months, but Ms. Jin’s husband was still not told who the presiding judge is.
The Procuratorate Deliberately Stalls
Ms. Jin’s husband filed a complaint with the People’s Procuratorate over the suburbs of Shenyang City using three different channels (two online platforms and one via registered mail) on April 19, 20, and 25, 2023.
Xia Ru, Li Xiaoyi, Sun Weijing, and Wang Jing were named in the complaint. Ms. Jin’s husband accused them of torturing his wife in prison and committing dereliction of duty. He requested that the procuratorate investigate these prison guards and evaluate Ms. Jin’s injuries as a result of her torture.
He received a text message from the procuratorate at 7:21 p.m. on May 5, 2023. The message read, “Upon review, your case is eligible to be handled by our agency. We will offer an update on the case status within three months.”
Two notices titled “Reply to People’s Letters” also came in the mail on May 11, 2023. The first notice bore the same content as the text message. The second one, dated May 9, read, “Your case has been assigned to the Second Procuratorate Office. We will update you on the case status within three months. Prosecutor Zhu Yong is in charge. His number is +86-24-88151251.”
Ms. Jin’s husband was hopeful that prosecutor Zhu would uphold justice for his wife. Zhu, however, never answered the phone even once despite Ms. Jin’s husband repeated calls to him during the next three months. Zhu also did not call back. When Ms. Jin’s husband went to the procuratorate, he was always stopped at the front desk. The receptionist always said that Zhu was in a meeting or was out inspecting prisons.
Ms. Jin’s husband mailed a request to Zhu and chief prosecutor Zheng Yu on July 3, 2023, urging them to respond to his complaint against the prison guards in writing. Zhu and Zheng signed the registered mail the next day but did not respond.
Ms. Jin’s husband went to the procuratorate on August 8 and asked to see Zhu. The receptionist initially said Zhu was inspecting a prison but then changed the excuse, and said, “Zhu was infected with COVID-19.”
Ms. Jin’s husband then went to the appeals office which is inside the procuratorate. Prosecutor Mou received him and upon “doing some investigation,” said, “The prison surveillance videos did not show Ms. Jin was tortured.”
Ms. Jin’s husband requested again that the procuratorate respond to his complaint in writing. He also asked for a copy of Ms. Jin’s injury evaluation report. The prison told him that they did the evaluation and submitted the original copy of the report to the procuratorate. He asked the procuratorate to give him a copy of the report.
Prosecutor Mou wrote down his requests and asked him to wait to hear back from the procuratorate.
However, he heard nothing. So he called prosecutor Mou on September 27, 2023. Mou said that his request was assigned to the prosecutor-in-residence at the prison and asked him to call back in a bit.
Ms. Jin’s husband called back a while later and Mou repeated what director Zhu, the prosecutor-in-residence, told him: An investigation was done and no unlawful activity was found. With regard to the complaint against the prison, director Zhu said prosecutor Zhu was instructed to give a verbal reply: “Your report of prison guards violating the law was unfounded and unsupported.”
Mou said by law the procuratorate must respond to concerns either in writing or verbally. Prosecutor Zhu chose a verbal reply and said Ms. Jin’s husband could contact him again if a written reply was still desired. Mou emphasized that his appeals office was only a messenger, not a decision maker.
Ms. Jin’s husband proceeded to file a complaint against Zhu for dereliction of duty on September 27 with the procuratorate’s appeals office. He received a reply on October 30 stating that, “We’ve investigated your complaint against prosecutor Zhu and we’ve found that he did not do any of the things you alleged.”
Procuratorate and Prison Work Hand in Glove
Ms. Jin’s husband filed another complaint against prosecutor Zhu and his supervisor Zheng on October 7, 2023. He went to the procuratorate on October 30 to again request a written reply to his complaint against the prison and a copy of his wife’s injury evaluation report. No one received him, but Zhu called him that afternoon asking him to meet at the prison the next day on the condition that he not bring his phone with him.
He went to the prison the next day and Zhu reiterated that the procuratorate would not issue a written reply to his complaint against the prison or give him a copy of his wife’s injury evaluation report.
Ms. Jin’s husband sensed that Zhu did not care about the case at all and only made excuses to shirk his responsibilities. Instead of asking about case details, Zhu questioned Ms. Jin’s husband as to how he learned of his wife’s injuries, who helped him write his complaints, and whether he practiced Falun Gong as well.
After meeting with Zhu, Ms. Jin’s husband made a request to the prison for a copy of his wife’s injury evaluation report. He was made to wait for more than one hour before Lu Wei (head of Division, where Ms. Jin is being held) and captain Li (who oversaw inmate Jin Hong who beat Ms. Jin) came to talk to him.
Ms. Jin’s husband said that Li said before that the prison submitted the original injury evaluation report to the procuratorate but prosecutor Zhu insisted he was only given a carbon copy.
Lu and Li responded that the prison did the injury evaluation at the request of the procuratorate and needed its permission to give out copies of the evaluation report. They acknowledged that the prison still had the original report, which was with the prison affairs office, not Division Ten.
Zhu, who was there during the conversation, accused Lu and Li of talking nonsense as he never said they must have his permission before giving out Ms. Jin’s injury evaluation report. He dared them to write down their words about needing his permission.
It was apparent to Ms. Jin’s husband that the three of them were putting on a show for him. He gathered from their conversation that they met among themselves that morning before meeting him hours later. They must have decided on how to turn down his request for the evaluation report. By pinning the blame on each other, Zhu, Lu, and Li effectively denied Ms. Jin’s husband’s access to her injury evaluation report.
No More Family Visits Before Release
Lu even ordered the few relatives who went with Ms. Jin’s husband to show their IDs to prove their blood relationships with her. Lu claimed that only immediate family was allowed to visit even though no law says so.
Ms. Jin’s husband and relatives had no doubt that she was tortured in prison. If Lu was so rude to them, she could be many times more brutal in dealing with Ms. Jin.
Lu and Li also denied Ms. Jin’s husband’s request to see her and were adamant that no more visits were allowed before she was released from prison. Lu even claimed that she withstood mounting pressure from the prison authorities to deny Ms. Jin family visits in granting her husband the April and July visits.
By law, inmates are entitled to monthly family visits, yet Lu made it sound like she granted Ms. Jin special privileges to have two family visits in April and July 2023.
Latest Complaint and Request
Ms. Jin’s husband filed another complaint on October 14 against the following perpetrators: prison guards Ma Xiao, Xia Ru, Li Xiaoyi, Sun Weijing, and Wang Jing; prosecutors Zheng Yu and Zhu Yong. He also requested state compensation for his wife’s injuries.
On November 7, he submitted another request to the Liaoning Province Prison Administration Bureau requesting it to ensure his wife’s safety so she could walk out of the prison alive on her release date, December 3, 2023.
Related reports:
Family's Uphill Battle to Visit Loved One In Prison
Liaoning Woman Suffers Heinous Torture in Prison
Liaoning Woman Tortured in Prison for Not Renouncing Her Faith
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