Chinese Lawyers Beaten by Police for Taking Falun Gong Practitioner’s Case

The two defense lawyers representing a Falun Gong practitioner’s family were violently beaten by police...
Chinese Lawyers Beaten by Police for Taking Falun Gong Practitioner’s Case
5/14/2009
Updated:
5/14/2009

The two defense lawyers representing a Falun Gong practitioner’s family were violently beaten by police while visiting their client’s home on May 13. The two lawyers, Mr. Zhang Kai and Mr. Li Chunfun, were hired by Mr. Jiang Hongbin to investigate the death of his father, Mr. Jiang Xiqing, who died suddenly overnight in a labor camp and was also missing organs used for ‘specimens.’

The lawyers were interviewed by an Epoch Times reporter while they were in a hospital receiving medical treatment for police inflicted injuries early Thursday, May 14.

According to the lawyers, on the afternoon of May 13, they met with Mr. Jiang at his home to discuss the lawsuit when four policemen from the Jiangjin District police station made a surprise visit and demanded to check their ID’s. The lawyers showed the police their ID’s and the police told them to wait. Then about 20 to 30 more policemen arrived. They were told that even a municipal level cadre was also there at Jiang’s home.

The lawyers said that Jiang Hongbin tried to take pictures at the scene with his cell phone. The lawyers tried to stop the police when the police took away the cell phones. So one policeman dashed them, and the other policemen followed suit and knocked the two lawyers to the floor and beat them violently. During the process, some policemen grabbed their hair, others pinched them on their arms, and some kicked and hit them hard.

Mr. Zhang said the police cuffed their hands behind their backs, and then savagely dragged them to a police car by force and left; they were again beaten in the car. After arriving at the police station, the police removed his belt and shoes and put him into an iron cage, cuffed his hands high onto the railing of the cage and left him hanging by his arms.

Mr. Zhang also said, “I was in a bad mood and I strongly protested. They did not uncuff me until about an hour later. Then they took our statements.”

Mr. Li said that soon after arriving at the police station, he was slapped on the face so hard many times that later he could not hear clearly, and he also felt dizzy.

The police also took their client, Jiang Hongbin, to the police station.

The two lawyers were detained from 7 p.m. on May 13 until 12:40 a.m. on May 14. After that their hands were swollen, numb, scratched, and injured from being cuffed. They went directly to a hospital to get a medical exam and treatment. Mr. Li said that he felt very dizzy.

Mr. Zhang said that they were beaten in the cars all the way to the police station, and they therefore did not know where they were being taken. He wrote down the police’s information in a notebook when the police flashed their ID’s to them in Mr. Jiang’s home. However, his notebook was destroyed by the police after they arrived at the police station.

When asked if he had prepared for this kind of treatment before taking the case, Lawyer Zhang said, “Having been through such awful police brutality, I think there must be something wrong with this case, or else they would not have mobilized so many policemen to brutally beat two lawyers. Afterwards, they even threatened us to stop processing the case and told us to take a high political stand.”

An Epoch Times reporter called the Jiangjin District police station at around 3 a.m. on May 14 and inquired about the incident. A man answered the phone and indicated that no such thing had happened and that they refused to be interviewed during the night.

Background


The Epoch Times has previously reported that Mr. Jiang Xiqing, 66, was declared dead in the Xishanping labor camp in Chongqing City on January 28, 2009. His health condition was good and normal when his family visited him at the labor camp the day before he died. Nevertheless, less than 24 hours later, the family was notified by the labor camp that he had died.

Jiang’s family went to the morgue to take a last look at his father, and found that his body, including the area above his lips; the chest, abdomen, and legs, were still slightly warm when they took it out of the cold chamber.

The police forbade them to touch the body, and claimed that the scratches on his head, chest, and legs were caused by his cellmates performing the traditional skin-scratching treatment on him. The family took several pictures at the morgue, but about twenty policemen, including the ones from the Xishanping labor camp, dashed over and took the camera away and destroyed it.

On February 5, without the consent of Jiang’s family, authorities performed an autopsy on Jiang, removed all his organs and made them into specimens. At 10 a.m. on February 8, authorities cremated Jiang’s body, without the consent from Jiang’s family. Thus far, Jiang’s cremated ashes remain in the Xishanping labor camp.

Jiang was a retired official of the Chongqing City Taxation Bureau who had practiced Falun Gong for 10 years. After beginning the practice, Jiang enjoyed very good physical and mental health. Jiang’s wife also practices Falun Gong. But Jiang’s once happy family was later tragically ruined by the Chinese regime’s cruel persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

Jiang was arrested at home by the local police on May 13, 2008, just one day after the devastating earthquake struck Sichuan. His wife Ms. Luo went missing in Youxi on the same day. His family later found that Ms. Luo, their mother was also illegally arrested by the Jiangjin District Procuratorate.

Jiang’s family later learned that he had been sentenced to one year forced labor. On December 2, 2008, the family went to the labor camp and found that their mother had been sentenced to 8 years forced labor. However, the family had never received any notification of the verdict from the court, nor had they been able to visit their mother.

Read the original article in Chinese