Teacher at Minzu University of China Sentenced

Name: Liang Bo
Gender: Female
Age: 41
Address: Unknown
Occupation: Teacher
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 20th, 2010
Most recent Place of Detention: Haidian District Detention Centre in Beijing
City: Beijing
Province: N/A
Persecution Suffered: Sleep deprivation, beatings, torture, force-feedings, fired from workplace, denied family visitation
Key Persecutors: Dong Yongping, Judge You Tao

The Haidian District Court in Beijing sentenced Ms. Liang Bo to three-and-a-half years of imprisonment on October 22nd. Ms. Liang Bo was a teacher in the School for Cultural Communication at Minzu University of China.

Ms. Liang was recently arrested on May 20th, by the Haidian District Police Department in Beijing. Officer Dong Yongping viciously beat her, cursed at her, deprived her of sleep, forced her to wear the inmate uniform, and forcibly cut her hair. Dong, who weighs around 170 pounds, also sat on her chest and pressed his left leg hard against her chest, fracturing her costal cartilage and inducing internal bleeding.

Ms. Liang is a mother of two children. Because she practises Falun Gong, she was forbidden to teach and was subsequently fired by university officials. Ms. Liang had been arrested by the State Security Police in Beijing on June 1st, 2003, and she was transferred to the State Security Bureau of Hainan Province three days later. She was bailed out on June 22nd of the same year, but then arrested again on March 17th, 2004 in Haikou City, Hainan Province. On August 20th, 2004, Ms. Liang was given three years imprisonment with a four-year probation by the Meilan District Court of Haikou City.

On the morning of May 18th, 2009, Ms. Liang went to see Liu Chunxu, the secretary of the School for Cultural Communication, to examine the documents, in which the officials claimed that she was officially dismissed. Within minutes of her arrival, officials of the school and the security division called Wanshousi Police Station, claiming that Ms. Liang came to distribute information about Falun Gong at the school. Subsequently, about 20 officers from the police station and the university's security division forcibly arrested Ms. Liang and took her to the Wanshousi Police Station, then transferred her to the Haidian District Detention Centre on the same day. Ms. Liang held a hunger strike for 14 days, and guards force-fed her twice a day. As a result she was near death. She was released to her family on June 30th, 2009.

State Security Police from Haidian District Police Department suddenly broke into Ms. Liang's home and forcibly took her away on May 20th, 2010. Ms. Liang was detained in the Haidian District Detention Centre, and was then transferred to Beijing No. 1 Detention Centre on May 24th. Her family wasn't informed of her whereabouts until they hired attorney Cheng Hai to investigate. By this time Ms. Liang's case had been submitted to the Haidian District Procuratorate several days prior.

It wasn't until August 23rd that attorney Cheng Hai first met with Ms. Liang in the detention centre. During this meeting, the attorney found that Ms. Liang had been severely hurt and that she couldn't walk well.

The attorney submitted the materials to the Procuratorate on August 16th. But up until August 23rd, the procurator, Chen Lei, was saying that the case had been transferred to the Haidian District Court.

The Haidian District Court sent a short message to Ms. Liang's attorney, informing the attorney that the court scheduled a public hearing in the No. 3 Tribunal at 9:30 a.m. on September 8th. On September 8th, however, the court didn't conduct the hearing until 10:30 am, and it relocated the hearing to the No. 7 Tribunal, which had only a small space. Because the Procuratorate had no evidence to make a charge, the hearing ended with no result after three adjournments.

On October 22nd, the Haidian District Court conducted another hearing. The judge was You Tao. He allowed only four people to be present at the hearing, although it was a public hearing. Ms. Liang looked very weak due to the persecution she suffered in the detention centre. Nurses brought her into the court in a wheelchair. Although she had difficulty speaking at the hearing and her voice was very weak, Ms. Liang still supported herself with her hands and shouted out that she wanted to appeal the case. She said that practising Falun Gong was not committing a crime and she didn't acknowledge any of the persecution to which she had been subjected. In the end, Judge You Tao sentenced her to three-and-a-half years of imprisonment.

Contact Information for Parties Involved in the Persecution:
Chen Yunfeng, Security Division of the Minzu University of China: 86-10-68932939
Wanshousi Police Station: 86-10-68419305

More information about Ms. Liang Bo can be found at:
http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/10/2/120377.html
http://www.clearwisdom.net/html/articles/2010/9/15/120006.html

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2010/10/25/231440.html