[Beijing] Xicheng District Court holds a trial for nine Falun Gong practitioners

On October 12th, the Beijing Xicheng District Court held a cursory show trial for nine Falun Gong practitioners. A retired associated professor from the Chinese Academy of Chinese (her name is currently unknown) was given one of the harshest sentences -- an eight-year prison term with one year of probation afterwards.

Supposedly all nine practitioners took part in various activities to appeal for Falun Gong during the Chinese New Year Celebration. Some of them are practitioners from Zhong Guancun, Beijing's high-tech district, including a 57-year-old, retired high school physics teacher named Liu Shuying and the above-mentioned associate professor. Some of them are from cities outside of Beijing, such as Nanjing and Qingdao. They were accused of "joining forces with overseas anti-Chinese movements and organizing cult activities to hinder the implementation of the laws." The courtroom was heavily guarded and closed to spectators. Every practitioner on trial was only allowed to have one family member present in the courtroom. The trial started at 8am and ended at 8pm. The prosecutor spent the majority of time asking the practitioners repeatedly if they were guilty. Each practitioner was asked the question over and over again. All the practitioners repeatedly replied, "We are cultivators who believe in the principle of 'truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance.' We have never been against the government, and we are totally innocent."

Practitioner Liu Shuying was given a three-year prison term. One of her major "crimes" was to "join forces with overseas anti-Chinese movements." The alleged "evidence" was that a couple of Chinese-Australian practitioners visited her at her home. This normal and open contact among practitioners was all secretly watched and recorded by plainclothes agents, and now has become a part of "evidence."

The names and details of all the other practitioners are unknown right now. The majority of them are highly educated intellectuals, from early-twenties to middle-aged. Among them was a young man who was a student in Japan. He went back to China to appeal for Falun Gong more than six months ago, and no one has seen or heard from him until the trial. His family was totally unaware of his situation, and still thought that he was studying in Japan.

All nine practitioners have been held at the local detention center for more than eight months. They obviously have suffered a great deal - all of them looked extremely thin and exhausted. Despite their frail physical appearance, their spirits were high. Formal sentences will be handed down to all of them after a 15-day "appeals" period.

[Mainland] Hunan Province female prison uses drugs to control the minds of practitioners

Starting this March, Hunan Province Falun Gong practitioners who were sent to the prison or labor camps were tortured in a manner similar to the horrendous human experiments that were conducted on certain prisoners during World War II to test the effectiveness of biochemical weapons.

It was a systematic and carefully planned "experiment" as part of the effort to suppress Falun Gong. Practitioners were injected with a new drug, which had the ability to temporarily 'hypnotize' people. Initially, under the influence of the drug, practitioners literally did everything that they were asked to do. It was fortunate that the power of the drug eventually wore off a week later (even with drug being administered daily). All the practitioners who had been "transformed" in this manner realized what had happened to them and are still steadfast Falun Gong practitioners. The majority of them have been conducting hunger strikes in protest.

Supposedly the Hunan province officials videotaped the statements that practitioners made while under the influence of the drug and are planning to broadcast them at the end of October. They are going to force practitioners from all over the province to watch the videotape, and use it as a threat against them. Recently similar reports have surfaced in many parts of China. We once again ask all the kind-hearted people from all over the world to help us!

[Beijing] Veteran practitioner Li Xuejun arrested

Beijing veteran practitioner Li Xuejun returned home around midnight on September 30th and was taken away by the police around 1am. He is currently being held at the Xicheng Detention Center.

Xu Chenzao, former head of the Shunyi Falun Gong Assistance Center, was sentenced to four years in prison, and his wife was sentenced to three years in prison. Veteran practitioners Zhang Zhengyuan and his wife Liu Shuxia were sentenced to 4-years and 5-years in prison respectively for printing and distributing Falun Gong flyers.

[Shanghai] Falun Gong flyers appear in Shanghai

In the evening of September 29, Falun Gong flyers such as "Kind-hearted people, please come to find out the truth about Falun Gong" and "Jiang Zemin can't shirk the responsibility for persecuting Falun Gong" appeared in many Shanghai districts.

[Mainland] Retired practitioners in Chengdu denied pension

Recently the government in the city of Chengdu (Sichuan Province) decided to stop pension payments to all retired Falun Gong practitioners. The policy was first implemented in the district of Jinjiang, and soon it will be implemented throughout Chengdu.

One such practitioner did not get his pension this month. When he went to ask what happened, he was told that he has to pay 2,000 Yuan as collateral first if he wants his monthly pension back. He asked why he had to pay the collateral, and nobody would answer him. He was told on another occasion that he would get his pension again only when Falun Gong flyers do not appear on the streets anymore. Another practitioner was told similar things, but he is extremely poor and cannot survive without his pension. Originally he was just going to wait and see what happens, thinking that if there is no pension he will just have to starve to death. Later he decided to go and talk to someone about it, and his pension was actually paid to him. He realized that he should take an active stand and not just allow evil forces to do anything they want to do.

[Mainland] Expressing the kindness of practitioners

Recently severe snowstorms hit the province of Inner Mongolia and caused a lot of damage. The government is asking people to donate money and goods to help the disaster victims. Currently all residential neighborhood commissions in Beijing are asking everyone to make contributions toward the relief effort. One Beijing practitioner, who was fired from his job for practicing Falun Gong and has no income, went to his local residential neighborhood commission to donate 500 Yuan of his savings. The person who handled his donation happened to be the very person who was assigned to "help and re-educate" him. She was very surprised by the large donation, and said, "we only have 700 people in our neighborhood. Our assignment is to come up with a total donation of 200 Yuan for the entire neighborhood. I totally did not expect you to donate so much money." She then said, "You really are an exceptionally kind and generous person." The practitioner replied, "All Falun Gong practitioners are exceptionally kind and generous. Compared to them, what I just did is not noteworthy at all." The lady at the neighborhood commission went on to say, "I really do not know what to say about everything that has happened," implying that she herself is sympathetic toward the Falun Gong practitioners. This action of the practitioner caused quite a stir in his neighborhood. Some people working for the neighborhood commission now have a new understanding of who Falun Gong practitioners truly are.