Spanish Attorney Speaks at Falun Gong Rally Advocating Stricter Laws on Organ Tourism (Photo)

(Minghui.org) On July 20, Falun Gong practitioners and human right activists from 27 European countries held a rally in front of City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, condemning the 14-year long persecution of Falun Gong in China. Carlos Iglesia, a Spanish lawyer, spoke at the rally about a law in Spain that prevents Spanish citizens from getting organ transplants in China.

Carlos Iglesia, a Spanish lawyer, at the rally.

After the rally, Mr. Iglesia told the reporters what prompted the law. A few days before the rally, a Spanish man was censured by Spain’s national transplantation organization. The man, Oscar Garay, got a transplanted liver in China, was encouraging others to travel to China if they were in need of an organ.

Garay, a former heavy drinker, traveled to China in 2008 for a new liver because medical complications made him ineligible for a transplant in Spain. He paid 130,000 euros (US$170,000). Garay’s story was reported in El Pais, the largest newspaper in Spain, in 2010. It provided a detailed description of his 2008 trip to Tianjin, China, where he got the organ that had been arranged for in advance. What Garay did was not illegal in Spain until June 2010, when the law was passed making it a criminal offense to “promote, facilitate, or publicize” obtaining an organ from an illicit source. Those engaged in such activities and the recipients of illicit organs could be jailed for 6 to 12 years.

According to Mr. Iglesia, encouraging other people to travel to China for organ transplants is a criminal offense. The law was changed, in fact, only after legislators and organ transplant specialists in Spain were made aware of a report by two Canadian researchers, David Kilgour, a former parliamentarian and crown prosecutor, and David Matas, a human rights lawyer, about the mass harvesting of organs from practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline, in China.

“Kilgour and Matas gave their report to the National Transplantation Organization, and recommended that the Ministry of Health issue instructions and recommendations not to travel to China for organs,”

Iglesias says. That was in November 2006. Iglesias described the mass extraction of organs from Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience as “truly a genocidal act.” He said: “The National Transplant Organization of Spain is supporting human rights in general and in China in particular … and is helping Spanish society understand the reality of what is happening under the Chinese communist dictatorship.”

Chinese version available

Category: Organ Harvesting

Shanghai Still Unlawfully Sentencing Falun Gong Practitioners

July 31, 2013 | By a Minghui correspondent from Shanghai, China

(Minghui.org) Changning District Court in Shanghai put Falun Gong practitioners Mr. Pang Guangwen and Mr. Zhao Bin on trial July 11, 2013, at 2 p.m. The court officials disregarded the defense attorney’s solid evidence of his clients’ innocence. The judge illegally sentenced Mr. Pang to five years in prison and Mr. Zhao to four years.

Mr. Pang had to be carried into the courtroom by three police officers. He was extremely weak due to a hunger strike to protest his innocence. His attorney delivered a strong defense. The judge nodded frequently and acknowledged the attorney’s arguments. Mr. Zhao, who did not hire an attorney, defended himself. The spectators were impressed with the defense. Even so, the court still sentenced Pang Guangwen and Zhao Bin to prison. The trial was really just a formality.

Mr. Pang and Mr. Zhao are both from Shandong Province. They ran a business in Sanzao Town in the Nanhui District of Shanghai. On April 27, 2012, they were both arrested at work by officers from the Jiangsu Road Police Station in the Nanhui District and taken to the Changning Detention Center.

Mr. Pang Guangwen was brutally tortured in the detention center. On May 14, he was handcuffed and shackled. On May 22, he started a hunger strike to protest. On May 27, he was transferred to the prison hospital, where they force-fed him. His hands and feet were tied to the bed and he could not move. Every day he was force-fed six bowls of food and injected with four to five bottles of salt water containing unknown drugs. After many good people pressured the authorities, he was released on August 1, 2012.

On July 5, 2013, the Changning District Court notified his family that Mr. Pang would have to be court on July 11 at 2:30 p.m. for the trial

On July 8 at 11:30 a.m., Mr. Pang went to the Changning District 610 Office to explain the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution. The officials would not listen to him and detained him in the Jiangsu Road Police Station next door at about 5 p.m. Then they transferred him to the Changning District Detention Center and held him there until the July 11 trial.

This has been a tough year for Mr. Pang’s family. Besides the fact that Mr. Pang was arrested again and sentenced to five years in prison, his elderly father had just come to Shanghai from his hometown in Shandong for medical treatment and is currently undergoing chemotherapy in the hospital. Mr. Pang’s daughter is less than five years old and cries each day for her dad to come home. His wife is suffering from shock and extreme sadness because her husband is in jail again, and her health is not good due to this stress. Even so, she has to cheer up every day to run the business in order to support the family.

We are calling for help rescue Mr. Pang Guangwen and Mr. Zhao Bin.

Participants the persecution of these two men:

Changning District 610 Office

Changning District Court officials: Zhu Liqun, Dai Yuqing (not sure whether he is from the court or the 610 Office)

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution

Ms. Huang Haiyan Detained with Extended Labor Camp Term

July 31, 2013 | By a Minghui correspondent from Hubei Province, China

(Minghui.org)

Summary of Key Persecution Facts

Name: Huang Haiyan(黄海燕)
Gender: Female
Age: About 40
Address: Wuhan City, Hubei Province
Occupation: Vendor
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May, 2012
Most recent place of detention: Hewan Forced Labor Camp(河湾劳教所)
City: Wuhan
Province: Hubei
Persecution Suffered: Detention, forced labor education, hung from handcuffs, torture, forced slave labor, sleep deprivation, denied visitation.

Ms. Huang Haiyan’s one-year term ended on May 15, 2013. Her family looked forward to having her home again. However, her term was secretly extended for another year.

On the morning of May 15, 2013, Ms. Huang’s husband went to the Hewan Forced Labor Camp to pick her up. He was told that someone had already picked her up, and to go home and wait for further information. Her husband left. Afterward, he learned some information online, from a friend, that Ms. Huang Haiyan’s term had been extended for another year and she did not leave the camp at all. It was reported that she was detained with an extended term because she refused to be “transformed.”

Back in May of 2012, the Wuhan Domestic Security officers arrested Ms. Huang Haiyan because she was distributing Falun Gong materials in her store. She was first sent to the Wujiashan First Women’s Detention Center. She was then secretly sentenced to one year in a forced labor camp. She was held in the Gushaoshu Drug Rehabilitation Center in Hankou and transferred to the Hewan Forced Labor Camp in Wuhan. Ms. Huang did not give up her beliefs and so she was tortured, and her family was not allowed to visit her.

At the end of last August, Ms. Huang was subjected to another round of torture in the Hewan Forced Labor Camp. Due to the extreme brainwashing tactics the guards used on her, for a while she was confused. Upon becoming clearheaded, she wrote a long letter to the team leader in charge and clarified the truth about Falun Gong. This only resulted in more torture. The guards handcuffed her hands onto a bed. Her arms turned black. In order to prevent her from speaking the truth about Falun Gong, the guards ordered the detainees to stuff dirty socks into her month for more than four hours, until her face turned black. When the socks were taken out, Ms. Huang continued to speak out. She was tied to a water pipe for the next several days.

Ms. Huang was also forced to do slave labor. She worked from early in the morning until late into the night. She tied sacks up with linen ropes. She could not go to sleep until she finished the work. The long-term hard labor left her hands covered with wounds.

Learning Falun Gong and Telling Others about the Persecution

Ms. Huang Haiyan, in her 40s, came from Huashan, a suburb of Wuhan. She and her husband ran a small business. They started from scratch and worked very hard. When the business grew better and better, they moved the entire family to the city. They rented a shop for selling liquor and tobacco, and their business did very well. Later on, Ms. Huang was fortunate to learn Falun Dafa. She became more and more candid and straightforward as she came to understand Dafa. She introduced Dafa to her customers.

Before practicing Falun Gong, Ms. Huang Haiyan did not have a good relationship with her mother-in-law. When she first started to practice, her mother-in-law didn’t understand her and tried to keep her from studying the Fa, practicing the exercises and clarifying the truth. Later, her mother-in-law had a heart attack. Ms. Huang told her mother-in-law to recite “Falun Dafa is great” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is great.” Her mother-in-law recovered. Since then, her mother-in-law no longer interferes with her practice in any way. Their relationship has greatly improved.

Repeated Arrests

In 2008, Ms. Huang Haiyan’s daughter attended a summer student camp which was organized by Chen Man and other Falun Gong practitioners. After Chen Man and other practitioners were arrested by the domestic security agents. Her daughter was also harassed by the authorities. The school teachers exerted pressure on Ms. Huang Haiyan. Ms. Huang gave the principal the DVD: “Traveling Heaven and Earth Through Wind and Rain” and hoped this would help the principal to learn the truth. However, she was detained in the local police station for 15 days.

This time Ms. Huang was arrested again because she told people about Falun Gong in her store. The whole family was threatened. Her mother-in-law had a heart attack and was hospitalized. No one took care of the store. The police even instigated the landlord to force Ms. Huang’s family to withdraw the lease. Their intention was to completely cut the family’s living income.

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution

Female Teacher Makes the Case for Acquittal at Her Second Trial

July 31, 2013 | By a Minghui correspondent from Liaoning Province, China

(Minghui.org) At her second trial, Ms. Du Qingxiu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, appealed a six-year prison sentence handed down by the Lingyuan City Court. The trial was held in Chaoyang City Intermediate Court on July 11, 2013. At the hearing, Ms. Du asked to be acquitted, because it was not against the law for her to tell people the truth about Falun Gong.

Ms. Du taught English at Linggang Middle School. She sent text messages on her cellphone to tell people about Falun Gong. The Domestic Security Divisions in Chaoyang City and Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province tracked her through her cellphone and arrested her last year on October 30.

Lingyuan City Court tried her on April 12, 2013. Ms. Du’s attorney entered an innocent plea for her and presented a strong defense. However, the court issued a guilty verdict three days later with a six-year sentence, more than the four-to-five years proposed by the prosecutor. Ms. Du appealed the sentence.

The second trial was held in Chaoyang West Dayingzi Court at 2 p.m. on July 11. Ms. Du’s two attorneys pled innocent for her. During the proceedings, Ms. Du said she should not be charged for believing in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. She sent text messages to the law enforcement officers so that they would understand the real situation and stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. She requested an acquittal.

The prosecutor did not present any new evidence, and Ms. Du’s attorneys pointed out that the evidence presented in the first trial was not valid, because it was not authenticated by an organization with a Judicial Authentication license or someone with a Judicial Authenticator’s Practice License. By law, all audio-visual information evidence must be authenticated by licensed organizations and individuals.

The attorneys also pointed out that the prosecutor failed to present any evidence that the law was violated, let alone evidence of the damages suffered by those who received Ms. Du’s text messages. The attorneys also presented four new pieces of evidence showing how the prosecutors made up false charges, violated the Constitution, and abused human rights.

Regarding the prosecutor’s argument that Falun Gong was a “superstitious cult” because the practitioners promoted Falun Gong with audio-visual materials, Ms. Du’s attorneys repeatedly stated that the so-called “illegal organization” as defined by the Ministry of Civil Affairs was not a cult. They pointed out that such an argument could not be the legal basis to charge Falun Gong practitioners since Falun Gong had no form of organization.

Related articles:

Schoolteacher Ms. Du Qingxiu Tortured and Abused in Masanjia Women’s Forced Labor Camp

Mr. Liu Zhifu and Other Falun Dafa Practitioners Tortured in Liaoning Province

An Illegal Trial Reveals the Truth

Laws Trampled, Conscience Ignored

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution

India: Falun Dafa Practitioners Solemnly Commemorate July 20

(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners of Bangalore came together on July 20 at a local practice site to do the exercises and study Falun Dafa teachings together. The event marked 14 years since the persecution of Falun Gong began in China. They also held a candlelight vigil to remember the Falun Gong practitioners who lost their lives in the persecution.

A practitioner shared that during the event she felt the spirit of practitioners around the world coming together to support the practitioners who are being persecuted in China. Many participants said they experienced particularly high energy while doing the exercises as well.

Category: July 20 Events