Blind From Childhood, Mrs. Bai Minghua of Huainan City, Anhui Province, Sentenced to Nine Years of Prison for Firmly Practicing Falun Gong

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Dafa practitioner Mrs. Bai Minghua, 55, of Huainan City, Anhui Province lived at building 3, Bihaixin Village, South Panji District, Huainan City, Anhui Province. Her practitioner husband, Mr. Hu Jinshan is 56 years old. The couple began practicing Falun Dafa in 1994.

Mrs. Bai Minghua has been blind since she was young, and she also had a serious stomach problem. Many years of medical treatment didn't help. After she started practicing Falun Gong, Bai Minghua soon became strong and healthy. Their daughter, Ms. Hu Yu, also began to practice cultivation in Falun Dafa.

Since Jiang's regime started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, no one in the Bai Minghua family could understand it. Such a good practice, which has benefited so many people! It has not harmed anyone and offers many benefits to families and society.

In September 1999, Bai Minghua and a fellow practitioner went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. After they arrived in Beijing they found plainclothes police and special agents all over the place arresting anyone identified as practicing Falun Gong. Realizing that appealing wouldn't work they had to return. But the local police station knew that they had been in Beijing, and arrested them and sent them to a detention center. Wang Huaijing, chief of the Political and Security Section of the District Police Department and police officer Xu Hong threatened to keep them at the detention center for life. Chief Wang Huaijing didn't release them until he had extorted 3,000 Yuan (1) from each family without giving any receipt.

In February 2000, Mrs. Bai Minghua held a discussion with Ms. Gao Xiucui, who was also blind, and two other practitioners. The four decided they must say something positive for Falun Gong. They supported each other by holding hands and went to Beijing again. The police put them into a van before they could find out where the Appeals Office was. They were sent to a big house where they witnessed police brutally beating a male practitioner in his 50s from Shou County, Anhui Province. The male practitioner was beaten to the point that bruises were visible all over his body, and he was close to death. He could not speak. A female practitioner in her 30s was beaten so badly that she could not bear the pain but kept weeping. Another female practitioner was chased by a policeman around the room and was beaten up. The policeman kicked her abdomen and slapped her face. Seeing these abuses, the four of them felt terrible: how could the Beijing police do something like this - violating the law and the constitution while claiming to be following Jiang's law?

After that, the four of them were sent to the Anhui Province Liaison Office in Beijing where they were all illegally detained for seven days. Then the Panji District "610 Office" (2) administrators had someone take them back to their hometown. When they had returned, local officials sent them to a detention center where they were illegally held for a month. Wang Huaijing, chief of the Political and Security Section of the district police department, again extorted Mrs. Bai Minghua's family, this time of 1,000 Yuan before releasing Mrs. Bai Minghua, and without giving a receipt. Yet the authorities did not allow her to go home, instead, they sent her to a brainwashing center and unconstitutionally detained her there for over ten days before they finally let her go home.

Mrs. Bai Minghua's husband, Mr. Hu Jinshan, and their daughter, Ms. Hu Yu, went to Beijing to speak out for justice for Falun Gong as well. Mrs. Bai Minghua's daughter went to Beijing to appeal in July 1999, and again in July 2000. When she returned, authorities sent her to the Huainan City Detention Center and unlawfully detained her there for 31 days. Mr. Hu Jinshan went to Beijing to appeal in July 2000 and was subsequently also sent to the the Huainan City Detention Center where he was detained for 22 days. Mr. Hu Jinshan and his daughter were released from the detention center on the same day, in early August 2000.

Because Mrs. Bai Minghua's daughter kept practicing Falun Dafa, people from the "610 Office" and the police department made trouble for her. Chief Wang Huaijing and Xu Hong again sent Dafa practitioner Ms. Hu Yu to the detention center. This time she was pregnant. Since the detention center did not accept pregnant women, they attempted to send her to a hospital and force her to abort the fetus. With Hu Yu and her husband's strong resistance, police chief Wang Huaijing and officer Xu Hong had no choice but to give up the attempt to forcibly abort her baby. After the baby's birth, the neighborhood committee office would not process their family planning registration and would not issue a birth certificate for the baby because Ms. Hu practices Falun Gong, thus depriving her baby of all citizens rights.

In January 2001, Mrs. Bai Minghua was suddenly and without due cause taken away from home, again sent to a detention center, and was detained for eight months. Seven out of the eight months were prolonged detention. Mrs. Bai Minghua suffered inhuman torture in the detention center. In order to keep her from practicing the Dafa exercises, the detention center put her on the "bed board shackle" for several days, a punishment usually reserved for the death penalty criminals. They also put Mrs. Bai in handcuffs and shackles, and even pierced her with needles. All kinds of cruel tortures that were used on death penalty prisoners were now used on a blind, older woman.

In the second half of 2001, persons from the "610 Office" and the police precinct began arresting practitioners, and sending them indiscriminately into a brainwashing center. If a Dafa practitioner insisted on practicing Falun Gong, he/she would be sent to forced labor camp, prison, or detention center. Although Ms. Hu Yu had given birth just three months prior, "610 Office" perpetrators and police officers came to arrest her late one night. Ms. Hu Yu and her husband did their utmost to resist, and didn't open the door. Because they had awakened too many neighbors, the police had to leave. In order to avoid persecution from police and the "610 Office," Ms. Hu Yu and her mother Mrs. Bai Minghua took the three-month-old baby and went into exile. They first went to Beijing to appeal again, unfolding a banner reading, "Falun Dafa is great" in Tiananmen Squire, and called out "Restore the prestige of my Master Li Hongzhi." Beijing policemen arrested them once again. The police tried to both coerce and threaten the two women, but the two women practitioners didn't tell them their names and address. The police could do nothing but release them.

Grandmother Mrs. Bai Minghua and mother Hu Yu had to live in different places with the baby. In September 2002 Mrs. Bai Minghua, her daughter, and grandchild stayed in her other daughter's home, at Ms. Hu Yan's. It was the time of the Mid-Autumn festival, but someone reported them to the policechief Wang Huaijing, the chief of the Political and Security Section of the District Police Department. Three days later, chief Wang Huaijing, accompanied by more than ten policemen, took Ms. Hu Yan and her husband to the station. Hu Yan's husband's arm at that time was broken from a work related accident and was still in a cast. Mrs. Bai Minghua's husband and all their children were taken to the police station too. The police searched Mrs. Bai Minghua's home without showing a search warrant. They opened every dresser and closet, and threw the clothes all over the floor. Policeman Xu Hong asked Bai Minghua's youngest daughter: "Where is your mom? Where does she live?" This youngest daughter is mentally retarded. She answered, "I don't know." Xu Hong said, "If you don't tell me I will throw you out of the building so you plunge to your death." The youngest daughter became terrified and screamed. She was taken to the police station as well.

Mrs. Bai Minghua's family and her daughter Hu Yan's family were detained at the police station till the evening of the following day before they were allowed to go home, but the police sent Ms. Hu Yan to the detention center, saying it was because she didn't report her mother's visit in time. Ms. Hu Yan was detained for 15 days.

In September 2002, on the fourth day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, police arrested Mrs. Bai Minghua and the young mother Ms. Hu Yu at the room they had rented. Ms. Hu Yu had to give up the less than one-year-old child to her dad Hu Jinshan to take care of. Mrs. Bai Minghua and the young mother Hu Yu were sent to the detention center, and were detained there till August 2003. For nearly 12 months their family members were neither allowed to visit nor able to get any information about them.

On August 10, 2003, their family received a phone call from the court, requiring the family members to accompany personnel from the court who were going to pick them up and go to the Bangbu Prison Hospital. On the morning of August 11, Mr. Hu Jinshan, Ms. Hu Yan, the head of the Huainan City Detention Center, and two persons from the court, as well as policeman Xu Hong went to the Bangbu Prison Hospital together. Mrs. Bai Minghua had by then been tortured to the point that she was as thin as a rail. She couldn't sit or walk. Ms. Hu Yu was also tortured until she was just skin and bones. She didn't even have the strength to open her eyes.

Five days later, on August 16, the police took Mrs. Bai Minghua and Hu Yu away again and sent them to the Huainan City First Detention Center. On August 25, a court session commenced in the Tianjia'an District/Huainan City to try seven Dafa practitioners. They allowed only two members from each family to observe the proceedings.

At 9:30 a.m., Falun Gong practitioners Ji Huijun, Xu Chun, and Gong Guomin were cuffed together by interlinking the three pairs of hands. Ms. Hu Yu and Ms.Yang Lulin were cuffed together and walked in. Then Ms. Sun Qirong and Mrs. Bai Minghua were carried out of the police van and into the court. They had by then been tortured to the point they were too weak to sit up. Dafa practitioner Ms. Sun Qirong fell down as soon as she was put on the bench; she was on the brink of death. The police fetched a mat from the van and put it on the floor and let her sit on it. Ms. Hu Yu supported her with her hands.

As soon as the judge started to read from a document, Mrs. Bai Minghua suddenly fell on the floor. Two policemen tried to pull her up. When Mrs. Bai Minghua's husband, Hu Jinshan, was about to come over to support her, the police didn't allow it and didn't let people speak. At this moment Ms. Hu Yu shouted, "I request a recess! These two women are dying! You really don't have a bit of humanity left, do you?" The judge struck the table to prevent Ms. Hu Yu from speaking. Dafa practitioner Hu Yu didn't listen but kept shouting, "We are not guilty! Falun Gong is not guilty! Restore the prestige of Falun Gong! Restore the prestige of Master." Other practitioners shouted out as well. The trial ended without a verdict.

Later, the court held a secret trial. They sentenced Ji Huijun to 12 years, Ms. Sun Qirong to 11 years, Gong Guomin to 11 years, Xu Chun to 9 years, Mrs. Bai Minghua to 9 years, and Ms. Yang Lulin to 7 years. Ms. Hu Yu's sentence was increased to 7 years because of her action in the court. All were sent to the Suzhou Prison.

Even though Mrs. Bai Minghua is blind, she was put in huge shackles while in the detention center, and was also forced to work. She fell and fainted from extreme weakness. Ms. Sun Qirong was also overly weak from torture. The doctor diagnosed she had heart problems; therefore, Suzhou Prison refused twice to accept them. An officer of the Suzhou Prison said that they were fully qualified to be bailed out for medical reasons, but "610 Office" supervisors from Huainan City have so far not processed their bail.

Political and Security Section District Police Department chief Wang Huaijing is guilty of more crimes. He extorted over 4,000 Yuan from Mrs. Bai Minghua's family without giving any receipt as a condition of releasing Mrs. Bai Minghua. He also confiscated a TV set, a VCR, a tape recorder, an electric fan, and a cell phone from Mrs. Bai Minghua's home.

(1) 500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.

(2) The "610 Office" is an agency specifically established to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.