Jailed for Five Years, Engineer Again Faces Trial for Faith

Based on an original report from Minghui

From September 22nd to 23rd, 2020, Ms. Liu Bobin and more than 30 other Falun Gong practitioners in Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province were arrested. Liu has now been indicted and is scheduled to be tried in the Daoli District Court.

Following her arrest on September 22nd, Liu was quarantined in the Harbin No. 4 Detention Center and her home was also ransacked. Later, she was transferred to the Harbin No. 2 Detention Center and has been detained there ever since. 

Infertile Woman Became Pregnant and Illness-free

Liu, 57, was a senior engineer at the state-owned Harbin Measuring Tool Factory. She had top grades in middle and high school and was admitted to Hunan University in 1983. Due to long-term stress from studying, she suffered from severe neurasthenia, neurosis, and headaches every day.

To have a child, Liu tried many western and Chinese medicines and had all kinds of procedures, but nothing worked. She was diagnosed with congenital infertility. Because of her condition, she had many family conflicts.

Then, in April 1995, she was introduced to Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, by her classmate. After she began to practice, her ailments soon disappeared and she regained her energy. Miraculously, four years after she took up Falun Gong she also became pregnant.

Handcuffed while Pregnant for Seeking Justice

After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong in July 1999, the people around Liu abruptly disassociated with her, even though they had witnessed how she had benefited from the practice. Under the communist regime’s authoritarian rule, what is interdicted by the Party is law. Consequently, Liu’s family members and colleagues all tried to force her to stop practicing Falun Gong. The pressure at work and home was suffocating for her.

Liu decided to tell the government about her own experiences in practicing Falun Gong and validate that Falun Gong was good. Heavily pregnant, she boarded a train to Beijing alone.

Since the Beijing Train Station was under curfew when she arrived, she stayed with a fellow practitioner. Liu learned many practitioners had already been arrested at Tiananmen Square. A few nights later, several police officers broke into where they were staying. Liu was identified and handcuffed the entire way back to her hometown of Harbin. 

Liu was taken to the Xiangfang District Police Department and ordered to sign a guarantee statement. Her father and her husband were also there. Her father tearfully begged her to give up Falun Gong while her husband threatened her with divorce and suicide. Despite the pressure, she chose to uphold the truth and her faith.

Losing Job for Persisting in Faith

On April 10, 2000, a month after the birth of her son, Liu was fired from her job because she refused to give up Falun Gong. Consequently, she was under tremendous financial and mental pressure. Liu approached various government agencies to seek justice, but to no avail.

Liu was monitored and harassed frequently after that. Officers from Zhujiang Road Police Station even ransacked her home without reason. To protect her from being arrested, her husband bribed people repeatedly. The harassment also caused him to suffer frequent tightness in his chest.

To earn a living, Liu found a job at a company her relatives owned. But when she was arrested in 2009, her life was again disrupted.

Arrested for Distributing Falun Gong Materials

On October 25, 2009, Liu was arrested for giving out Falun Gong materials. She was sentenced to five years in prison in the Daowai District Court. She filed for an appeal, but the Harbin Intermediate Court upheld the original verdict.

In her eight months at the detention center, Liu was confined to a small room with three other inmates. She was only allowed to wash herself inside the room with a small amount of water. She was also forced to memorize the prison rules every day.

When she was admitted to prison in June 2010, Liu was forced to wear a prison uniform, have her hair cut, sit on a small stool, and watch brainwashing videos. The guards also made her read books that slandered Falun Gong and write thought reports.

Harassed for Filing Lawsuit 

When Liu was released from prison in January 2014, her husband could no longer bear the pressure and divorced her. Her son also left and went abroad with her ex-husband. She was prohibited from leaving the country to see her son.

After she filed a lawsuit  in 2015 against Jiang Zemin, the primary instigator behind the persecution, Liu was often harassed by Zhujiang Road Police Station officers.

Because she refused to cooperate with the police in a harassment campaign in 2017, the police refused to issue an essential document her son needed to apply for permanent residency in the overseas country.

Original Article: https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2021/3/31/191656.html