(Minghui.org) After the local Human Resources and Social Security Bureau (HRSSB) admitted it had made a mistake by ordering him to repay the pension he had received during his wrongful prison term for practicing Falun Gong, Mr. Liao Ancai agreed to withdraw his administrative litigation against the bureau on September 30, 2020.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Liao, 64, of Xichang City, Sichuan Province, was arrested on January 28, 2015, and sentenced to three years for refusing to renounce Falun Gong. He was tortured in Jiazhou Prison in Leshan City. For a long time, he was allowed only 15-20 seconds to eat at mealtime when other inmates were allowed to finish their food.
On December 6, 2018, about 11 months after his release from prison, Mr. Liao was informed by the local Social Insurance Fund Bureau (SIFB) that they would start suspending his pension to pay back the 2,650.56 yuan that had been paid out to him while he was incarcerated. Not only that, after he paid off the “debt,” he would have to submit a new application to reactivate his pension.
Mr. Liao said that, according to the law, all retirees are entitled to pension benefits, so it's against the law for the local SIFB to withhold his pension because of his imprisonment. He filed an administrative reconsideration to the local HRSSB, which oversees the SIFB, to protest persecuting him financially and demanded that the SIFB reinstate his pension.
After the HRSSB rejected his appeal on March 25, 2019, he submitted the administrative litigation against both the HRSSB and SIFB on April 18, 2019. The Xichang Court accepted his case on May 12, 2019, and held a hearing on August 26, 2019.
On September 30, 2019, the court ruled that the HRSSB didn’t have the administrative authority to uphold its subordinate SIFB's pension decision regarding Mr. Liao.
Despite the court’s ruling, the Xichang HRSSB sent Mr. Liao another letter on December 3, 2019, and demanded that he pay back whatever pension he’d received during his prison term. The HRSSB officials threatened and intimidated him.
Mr. Liao filed another administrative litigation with the Xichang City Court and demanded an investigation of any breach of power in the HRSSB’s letter.
The Xichang City Court accepted the case again. With the court’s involvement, the HRSSB agreed to withdraw their letter. After that, Mr. Liao agreed to drop his litigation on September 30 and the court also canceled the hearing scheduled for October 10.
It’s not clear whether the SIFB has reinstated Mr. Liao’s pension at the time of writing.
Related reports:
Falun Gong Practitioners’ Motions to Reconsider Their Cases Accepted by the Intermediate Court
