Luo Jiangping - 罗江平
(Minghui.org) Mr. Luo Jiangping from Sichuan Province was illegally arrested in Nanhua County, Yunnan Province in January 2012. He was sentenced to a prison term and held in the Yunnan Province First Prison. When he was on the verge of death, he was released on medical parole on December 23, 2013. Five days later, he passed away at the age of 51.
In the prison, he had been subjected to many kinds of torture methods, such as injections with unknown drugs, being handcuffed and shackled, forced to do slave labor, confined in a solitary cell, and so on. Mr. Luo had told his family that he had been injected with poison. He showed them the black marks on his hand that were left by the injection. He was emaciated at the time of his release.
Elderly Mother Forbidden to See Her Son
Mr. Luo was from Salian Town, Miyi County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan. He started to practice Falun Dafa in 1996, and lived by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Due to practicing Falun Dafa, the leg pain he had suffered from childhood disappeared and his mental outlook improved.
Since the communist regime launched the persecution of Falun Dafa in July 1999, Mr. Luo has been repeatedly arrested and harassed by the Miyi County Police Department, the Criminal Investigation Division, the Miyi County Political Security Office, and the Salian Town government. Police ransacked his home, and officials extorted money from his family.
He was sentenced to a five-year prison term in early 2002. He was detained in the Deyang Prison in Sichuan, where he was tortured and forced to do slave labor.
Mr. Luo and Ms. Zhang Jimei, a Falun Dafa practitioner from Miyi County, were arrested by officers from the Longchuan Town Police Station on January 6, 2012. They were seen clarifying the facts about Falun Gong and handing out informational materials about the practice in Shanshang Village, Longchuan Town, Nanhua County, Chuxiongzhou, Yunnan.
Mr. Luo was taken to the Nanhua County Detention Center, and Ms. Zhang to the Chuxiongzhou Detention Center.
Mr. Luo's 77-year-old mother traveled to Nanhua County Detention Center to see him on January 18, 2012. She asked the county's Domestic Security Division to release her son. The chief of the division, Ma Xiaoyun, and officer Ji Yun refused, nor was she allowed to see him.
Mr. Luo's mother later returned to Ma Xiaoyun and Ji Yun to get permission to see her son. Ma Xiaoyun refused to see her, and Ji Yun told her to leave his office and then left.
Officials Confiscate Court Documents
Mr. Luo and Ms. Zhang were put on trial by the Nanhua County Court at 2:40 p.m. on April 11, 2012. The lawyers from Beijing entered a not-guilty plea on Mr. Luo and Ms. Zhang's behalf. They pointed out that practicing Falun Dafa is not illegal as stipulated by the Chinese Constitution, and talking to people about the practice is not a crime.
The presiding judge Zhang Biao, prosecutors, court clerks, and other judges did not wear name tags. Zhang Biao interrupted the defense lawyers multiple times and stopped Mr. Luo and Ms. Zhang from speaking out.
The court did not issue a verdict, saying that it would be delivered the next day. After the trial, the presiding judge, other judges and more than a dozen police cornered the defense lawyers and forced them to hand over all trial-related materials.
Before the trial, on April 10, the lawyers were threatened and harassed by the police. Judge Zhang Biao and others went to the lawyers' hotel room and took away a piece of evidence. The lawyers were also followed.
Mr. Luo later called home and said that he had been sentenced to three and a half years in prison and Ms. Zhang to four and a half years. Mr. Luo planned to appeal.
As of April 23, 2012, nearly two weeks after the trial, his family still had not received notification of the verdict. Later, Mr. Luo was transferred to the Yunnan Province First Prison and Ms. Zhang to the Yunnan Province Second Women's Prison.
Lawyer and Family Visits Forbidden
Two lawyers from Beijing, hired by Mr. Luo's mother, arrived at the prison on the afternoon of May 15, 2013, and requested to meet with Mr. Luo. Three men in black T-shirts followed them inside and secretly videotaped them. When the lawyers discovered what they were doing and questioned them, the three men put away their recording equipment.
When the lawyers arrived at the Prison Affairs Section, section chief Chen attempted to prevent them from meeting with Mr. Luo by claiming that their “power of attorney” documentation was applicable only to the court, not the prison. He also insisted that a letter from the local police station was required to prove the relationship between Mr. Luo and his mother.
When Mr. Luo's mother-in-law went to the prison the next day, the same section chief also asked her for proof of her relationship with Mr. Luo. When she showed a certificate issued by the local Domestic Security Division, the section chief still did not allow her to see Mr. Luo, using various other excuses.
The two lawyers finally met with Mr. Luo on August 29, 2013.
Prison Officials Use Delay Tactics Instead of Releasing Mr. Luo
When Mr. Luo's mother and other relatives went to the prison to visit him on December 16, 2013, they were told that he was in the prison hospital and suffered late-stage cirrhosis.
They questioned the prison officials about Mr. Luo's treatment in the prison since he was fine three months ago when his lawyers met with him. The prison guards claimed that they treated him well. The relatives told the prison officials that they knew about the long hours of slave labor Mr. Luo suffered. Their entire conversation was recorded.
When Mr. Luo's mother and relatives went to the prison hospital, only three of them were allowed to meet him, one of them was his mother. Mr. Luo was pushed out in a cart, he was emaciated, and his hands and feet were swollen.
Mr. Luo told his mother that he wanted to go home with her. When his mother saw his condition, she fainted. Mr. Luo fainted as well after he saw his mother faint. He was pushed away. His relatives requested that he be released on medical parole or have him transfer to a better hospital so that he could be treated at a good facility.
They waited outside the prison gate for the guards who recorded their visit. They asked the guards some questions and were told that they would report their request to their superior and asked them to come back the next morning.
On the next morning, when Mr. Luo's family and relatives arrived at the prison, they were put in a room with two video recorders. The family grew upset and said that they wanted to leave if the prison officials had no intention of releasing Mr. Luo.
Mr. Luo's mother refused to leave and insisted to stay behind with her son. The relatives returned and told the prison officials to take full responsibility for the safety of Mr. Luo and his mother and demanded an answer by noon.
When they came back in the afternoon of the same day, they were told that Mr. Luo could be released for medical parole, but their pictures had to be taken as part of the procedure. The prison officials also had to verify Ms. Luo's sister's identity and needed to go to Miyi County to do more paper work. Mr. Luo's family and relatives realized that they were trying to delay the release.
Mr. Luo was released five days later and passed away five days after that.
