Xiao Fang was sentenced to prison after being stationed at her home under guard by local government officials for forcible demolition of her petition (above), and continued to cry foul after her release from prison (below). (Courtesy of the interviewee)
The government of Tianyuan District, Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province, organized hundreds of people from local departments to carry out forced demolition of a local household in 2013, and restricted the personal freedom of the household in the form of “cow watching” for a long time, and finally sentenced the petitioner to prison. The victim kept crying out for justice, hoping that the law would return to her.
Government-organized demolition
A work plan for the expropriation and demolition of land for the construction of ordinary commercial houses on Zhujiang Inter Road in Tianyuan District, Zhuzhou City, provided by the informant, shows that the Tianyuan District Government launched a three-tier forced demolition operation against the tenant Wang Jinhua and others, and the document shows that the district government formulated the plan on December 17, 2013.
Tian Yuan District Government forced demolition program exposed, the picture is part of the document. (provided by a knowledgeable person)
The documents show that in terms of manpower arrangements, as many as 335 people participated. This includes 60 people from the Public Security Tianyuan Branch, 49 people from the Tianyuan District Construction Management Office, 60 people from the Tianyuan District Violation Control Brigade, 50 people from the Tianyuan District City Management Brigade, 50 people from the Taisan Office, and 50 people each from the Hektang District, Shifeng District, Lusong District Demolition Team, 8 people from the Fire Department, and personnel from the District Party Committee Propaganda Department, the Land Tianyuan Branch, the Planning Tianyuan Branch, the Bureau of Letters and Visits, the Judicial Bureau, the Levy Office and other government departments.
The water and electricity cut-offs during the demolition operation were handled by the suburban agricultural and electric service company. The company arranged one fire truck, one ambulance, one excavator and one van.
The specific on-site personnel arrangement is divided into six groups, including the on-site execution group, mass working group, peripheral security group, security alert group, publicity and public opinion group and logistical support group. The total step of the demolition action is to control the demolition object, clear the dangerous goods, relocate the indoor property, and then carry out the demolition of the house, as well as to stop and take away the people with excessive behavior.
The specific tasks of the demolition operation are divided into different tasks. For example, 30 minutes before the demolition action, 20 members of the anti-demolition team in civilian clothes will be arranged to persuade all family members of the household to leave or forcefully take them away from the cordon line and hand them over to the mass working group; the task of the mass working group of 57 people (including 46 from the Taishan Office) is to pacify and stabilize the objects to ensure that they do not behave aggressively; the peripheral vigilance group will stop irrelevant people from entering the site and isolate or take compulsory measures against those who refuse to quit the cordon line to stop the work. Take coercive measures; public security alert group for road closure, patrol, warning and admonition of emotional or excessive behavior of the object, take away from the scene. The Publicity and Public Opinion Group is responsible for video recording the whole scene, contacting the publicity and media departments for public opinion propaganda, and confiscating the equipment or returning the relevant information after confirming its deletion for those who take photos and videos without permission.
The reporter wrote to the Tianyuan District Government to ask about the authenticity of the document and received no response as of press time.
Wang Jinhua’s daughter-in-law Xiao Fang told the reporter, “At that time they were going to demolish the house and our family was very panicked. He took out this document and said to my mother-in-law, “If you don’t sign it, you will demolish your house! My mother-in-law and her husband stood on the roof, prepared two bottles of pesticide, and fought to the death, and finally they withdrew.”
At the end of that year, Wang Jinhua’s family was forced to evict and stop the water. “The mother-in-law went out to carry water to drink, broke her leg and was hospitalized. My husband and I were one in the store and one in the hospital taking care of the elderly. They took advantage of the lack of people in the house and directly demolished the house with an excavator.”
“All the things, including the child’s birth certificate, our wedding photo and home appliances were buried. When my mother-in-law was discharged from the hospital, she was still ten days short of New Year’s Eve, and the family had no place to spend it. Our family stayed at my husband’s aunt’s house. My mother-in-law didn’t even have a change of clothes.”
Xiao Fang believes that the administrative department does not have the power to demolish the house, and only the court has the power. The district government must apply to the district court to enforce the law, and then the court’s enforcement division will enforce it. If the court enforces, the court will have a coordination process, there is a verdict, at least to protect her legal rights.
The victim was “cattle watching” to restrict personal freedom
According to Xiao Fang and the verdict, in 2013, Wang Jinhua’s house located in the Tiantai Three Team of the Taisan Street Office in Zhuzhou’s Tianyuan District was included in the scope of land acquisition for a commercial housing construction project.
The building area identified for the demolition of Wang Jinhua’s house was 660 square meters (256 square meters * 2 floors + 126 square meters.) On December 25, 2013, Xiao Fang’s husband signed the compensation form for 1,659,983 yuan. However, Xiao Fang did not agree to the demolition because the government did not account for the compensation by population, area and market price.
She said, “My mother-in-law’s house was built in 1988. My mother-in-law is a farmer and built this house by feeding pigs and growing vegetables, which is a legal house with a property license. Because a family of six people, (and compensation) in that lot can not buy a house for resettlement.”
The local government locked Xiao Fang in her home and forced her to sign the agreement. Xiao Fang provided a mass working group work schedule shows that under the head of the office leadership signed, two groups of people to do work on Xiao Fang, respectively, a team leader, team members three, the time schedule covers 24 hours, the location includes stores and dormitories.
Xiao Fang said, “Before the demolition, I lost my personal freedom for 24 hours like this. Our local word is ‘watch the cattle’, watch you like a cow at home, do not let you go out, do not let you go to Beijing to sue, and keep you in the house like this until you sign.”
“The longest I was ever locked up was for three months, and my child, who was more than two years old at the time, was also locked up and didn’t go out to walk her for three months.” She said.
After the forced demolition, Xiao Fang was locked up at home every year because of the petition, and was also detained four times by the criminal government.
When the Communist Party held its two sessions in 2016, Xiao Fang went to petition and was intercepted on the way back. The local government locked up both couples at home and cut off their family’s source of livelihood. Xiao Fang called more than a dozen 110 police, but 110 would not come out.
“The child was very scared, and many people guarded the house. All are people from the office, they also hired the kind of people in the community.” In desperation, Xiao Fang climbed out of the sixth floor burglar-proof window and escaped from the roof to run to Beijing to petition.
In Beijing, Xiao Fang was thinly dressed and had no money on her, so she asked the Beijing police for help. She told the police how she and her family were being held at home, hoping they would save them, but was sent to Majialou by the police and then sent back to her home by the local Beijing office. Xiao Fang was then sentenced to prison.
The shame of being locked up for life without charge
The verdict shows that Xiao Fang’s sentence was based on the fact that he was admonished six times by the Beijing public security authorities for non-visits in the Tiananmen Square area of Beijing and around Zhongnanhai, and administratively detained four times by the Tianyuan Branch of the Zhuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Xiao Fang said that the so-called admonishment was only a verbal admonishment by the staff with a loudspeaker in the hall of Majiarou. Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Xicheng Branch Fuyu Street Police Station gave Xiao Fang a reply that “admonishment belongs to the publicity and education of myself, not an act of administrative punishment.”
She said, “I went to the petition department many times, including Hunan Province and the National Petition Bureau. When I arrived in Beijing, I also wanted to visit Tiananmen Square. When I went through the security check, the police found petitioning materials in my bag and sent me to Majialou. Then it was blacklisted.”
Xiao Fang was sentenced to one and a half years in prison and put in the First Detention Center of Zhuzhou City Public Security Bureau in Hunan Province. “My heart was desperate to the point of despair. Because I felt (I was) a virtuous woman and there was no evidence that I had committed a crime, it was the greatest harm to the people to put me in like that.” She said.
Xiao Fang said the case has been very damaging to the family. At the time, the daughter was in college and gave up her graduate studies for this reason; the son was only four years old and appeared to be in a state of childhood depression and needed psychological counseling. And the criminal case will have an impact on the future life of the two children.
She said, “in that more than a year is completely without any privacy, including your bath, toilet all have cameras, if not in violation of the law, is really a lifetime of shame.”
It is reported that Xiao Fang’s original home in the district has been built upscale commercial buildings, and she can only cry out injustice around, hoping that the law can return justice to her.
Lawyer: absurd verdict
Xiao Fang’s lawyer for the second trial, Xie Yang, said in an interview with the Epoch Times that the charge of provoking and provoking trouble is itself very vague, and that criminal charges should be fine and clear. But the Chinese Communist Party uses such a charge to lock up some people it doesn’t like.
“From a professional point of view to make a judgment, I think she is not guilty enough.” Lawyer Xie Yang focused on the procedural aspects of the case. The court of first instance sentenced her to one and a half years, and after the court of second instance held a hearing and sent her back for retrial on the grounds of unclear facts and insufficient evidence, and after the retrial, the court of first instance still sentenced her to one and a half years for provocation and nuisance.
“This is the Chinese style of sentencing, which is very odd. The public authority made two completely opposite rulings based on the same facts. This is very absurd. Where is the law? Where is the dignity of the law?” He said.
Xie Yang said that based on his understanding of the case and the current state of justice in China, he opposes starting the retrial process and will look at it in the future because there is no time limit for retrial cases. “Nowadays, if a petition case is started for the purpose of maintaining stability, it can be said that 100 percent of the original sentence will be upheld. Stability maintenance is linked to politics, and in cases linked to politics, the law stands aside.”
Recent Comments