Lawyer Asks for Immediate Release of Mongolian Dissident Hada; Family Provides Further Details on Hada’s Condition

Letter to the Party Committee of Inner Mongolia and the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee in care of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of Inner Mongolia

from Hasi, Xinna’s older brother and a lawyer at Jintao Law Firm in Beijing

[English translation by Human Rights in China]

January 11, 2013

As a lawyer retained by Hada and Xinna and as a close relative, I am representing them in accordance with the law. I am making an appeal on behalf of Hada and Xinna, accusing the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department of unlawful acts in its persecution of their entire family, and rebuking its actions.

In handling Hada’s case, the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department has fabricated facts, deceived the Inner Mongolia Party Committee, and Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Below are descriptions of the unlawful acts of the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department’s criminal acts in its deliberate instigation of incidents, manufacture of ethnic conflict, and deceiving of superiors and subordinates:

1. Ignoring state law, the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department picked up Hada from the prison upon his release and sent him directly back to Hohhot and put him under unlawful detention after he completed serving his 15-year prison term.  The people in charge of and those directly responsible for this act have committed the crime of unlawful detention.
2. The Inner Mongolia Public Security Department deliberately fabricated facts, claiming that Xinna would organize nearly 100 people to welcome Hada when he was released after serving his 15-year prison sentence. Not only did they not release Hada, they threw his wife and son in jail and forced Hada to plead guilty. In January 2011, individuals from the Public Security Department’s Domestic Security Brigade separately found several of Xinna’s relatives to ask their thoughts about Hada not being released and about Xinna and his son, Uiles, being detained.  At that time, we pointed out to Public Security Department’s Domestic Security Brigade that Hada had already completed his 15-year prison sentence and should be released immediately in accordance with the law. With regard to what constitutes the deprivation of political rights, the law provides very clear rules. To deprive Hada of his political rights should not mean to deprive him of his personal liberty. We also emphasized that the behavior of the Public Security Department’s Domestic Security Brigade is in violation of criminal law, and they have committed the crime of illegal detention, and the people in charge of and those directly responsible for Hada’s detention must be investigated and held criminally responsible in accordance with the law. The people from the Public Security Department’s Domestic Security Brigade said that Xinna planned to organize nearly 100 people to welcome Hada upon his release, but that to maintain stability they could not release him then, and would only release him if he pleaded guilty. They also asked us to convince Hada to admit that he did commit crimes 15 years earlier, and explicitly said that if Hada would plead guilty, Xinna and Uiles’ problems would end. The purpose of the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department’s fabricating facts, deliberately instigating incidents, manufacturing ethnic barriers, and intentionally creating a negative image of China’s human rights situation in the international community, is to attract the central government’s concern about the ethnic issues in Inner Mongolia, and so that officials would get their promotions by authorities at higher levels of government.
3. In falsely accusing Xinna of engaging in “illegal business operation” and Uiles of “illegally possession of drugs,” the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department fabricated facts, committed perjury, and flagrantly trampled on our nation’s law. Its objective is to force Hada to plead guilty. Xinna was sentenced to three years of imprisonment with five years of suspension for “illegal business operation.” But the entire case—procedurally and factually—was utterly unlawful from beginning to end. And the false accusation made by the Public Security Department is full of holes. The Saihan District People’s Court of Hohhot Municipality found Xinna guilty of illegal business operation in trying to sell more than 5,000 Mongolian-language discs. The court relied on two primary pieces of evidence: a written record of the search and a list of the seized items. But in the court’s investigation stage at the trial of first instance, the cross-examination of the two police officers responsible for the case clearly showed that the record of the search and the list of seized items were forged; one of the officers even admitted in court that he forged another person’s signature, that it was his own mistake. Most glaring was the evidence presented by the prosecution as basis for its accusation: the entire surveillance videotape that had recorded the search of [Xinna’s] Mongolian bookstore on December 3, 2010. At trial, the prosecutors and the defendant all viewed the tape and concluded that it did not contain any record of Xinna refusing to sign or of the search and seizure of more than 5,000 discs. This further proved that the written record of the search and the list of seized items were evidence forged by the police. Originally, the trial of second instance was to be a paper review and not a court hearing. As the defense lawyer, I requested, in accordance with the law, copies of the case proceedings. The presiding judge denied my repeated requests. This obviously was in violation of the provisions that entitle defense lawyers to copy criminal case materials.

   Even harder to understand was that the important evidence in this case, the disc containing the surveillance videotape recording of the search of Mongolian bookstores on December 3, 2010, was broken. At the time, I had my laptop with me and requested to carefully review the CD. When I inserted it into my laptop, it did not produce any images. In order to try this case fairly, I requested that the presiding judge make another copy of the prosecutors’ CD. But in the end, no such copy was made. The second instance court did not investigate the destruction of an important piece of evidence in the case, but instead made a hasty judgment. Was this not a clear violation of legal procedure?

The reasons for Xinna’s conviction of “illegal business operation” and sentence are that the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department fabricated facts, committed perjury, and flagrantly trampled on the nation’s law. Its specific actions are as follows:

1. On the day of Xinna’s trial, when she was escorted to the court from the detention center, her prepared self-defense statement was forcibly grabbed from her by several police officers. That deprived her of the right to self-defense.
2. The Mongolian language discs being sold in Xinna’s store are mainly Mongolian throat-singing, Mongolian folk songs and morin khuur [Mongolian bowed stringed instrument] music, discs that have Mongolian cultural characteristics. They are all made by musicians who love Mongolian culture. These discs do not have copyright and thus there is no problem of piracy. Their contents are neither lewd nor political that might be harmful to state security. They are not harmful to society and [their possession or sale is] not criminal.
3. Why is it that a lot of people selling these Mongolian discs are not committing a crime but only Xinna alone is?
4. Why did Xinna never commit a crime in the 15 years of selling these Mongolian language discs, but did so only right before Hada was released from prison? As a Mongol, Xinna was selling discs containing the nearly lost Mongolian throat-singing and Mongolian folk songs to preserve and promote Mongolian culture. How can it be considered a crime? Is not Xinnna’s conviction an obvious strike against the promotion and development of Mongolian culture?

In order to force Hada to admit guilt, the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department has used extremely despicable means to put his wife and son in prison, shut down the Mongolian bookstore that Xinna was operating, not allow her to run a bookstore, cut off her income—so that she has no money to live on or to see a doctor—and economically persecute the whole family.

In summary, the Domestic Security Brigade of the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department has ignored state laws and regulations. Upon Hada’s release after completing his 15-year prison sentence, it took him back to Hohhot and has since been illegally detaining him in Hohhot and depriving him of his personal freedom. In flagrant violation of national law, it has also used extremely despicable methods, to throw his wife and son in prison, in order to force Hada to admit guilt. The Inner Mongolia Public Security Department is deceiving the Inner Mongolia Party Committee and the central government, instigating ethnic incidents, and manufacturing ethnic conflict, with the purpose of creating the false impression that there is a serious ethnic problem in Inner Mongolia, and thereby making higher level leaders attach importance to them and put them in important positions. Therefore, I ask the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the Central Committee and the Inner Mongolia Party Committee to pay close attention to the following requests:

1. Order the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department to stop its illegal action in detaining Hada and release him immediately, and restore his personal freedom;
2. In accordance with the law, initiate a case to investigate the criminal liability of the persons in charge and those directly responsible for the illegal detention of Hada, and the manufacture of false evidence against, and the framing of, Xinna and Uiles.

Sincerely,

Lawyer Hasi

Beijing Jingtao Law Firm

Letter to Director Bao of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of Inner Mongolia

from Hada’s wife Xinna

[English translation by Human Rights in China]

January 20, 2013

Director Bao,

Hello, Chinese New Year is approaching, but Hada remains illegally detained and is entering the 18th year of the loss of his personal freedom. On January 11, 2013, we again entrusted our lawyer to file an appeal and complaint, and it is not necessary to repeat the points made there. I write to you today in hopes of resolving the following problems:

1. Hada's physical and mental health is deteriorating, and must be taken seriously and addressed. Three months after I saw Hada last,¹ I discovered that he now walks very little. Every day he sits on the bed, motionless, with eyes closed, not speaking a word, not willing to communicate even with his family. Then after drinking alcohol, he talks too much; he dislikes sound, gets angry for no reason, and speaks irrationally. He has already had two incidents of fecal incontinence. In three months he has gained significant weight, of at least 30-40 catties [1 catty is about 1.1 pound]. One can see that his self-control is in serious decline and he is anxious and irritable.  Originally, Hada was a very clean person, but during this visit I found that his ability to take care of himself has seriously declined. His dirty clothes were piled up unwashed, and he has a severe psychological dependence on alcohol. I pleaded with him to drink less, but he flew into a rage. The abnormal behavior described above was not present three months ago. I hope his situation will be taken seriously, and measures will be taken as soon as possible.
2. We again request to replace Chief Yang, who is in charge of watching Hada. Previously, we repeatedly reported Yang’s abuse of Hada, but you ignored us. I will now provide concrete examples again. Hada repeatedly sent written requests to subscribe to Reference News,² but Yang rejected these requests, citing insufficient funds. Hada also proposed reducing his food ration to make it possible to subscribe to the paper, but Yang ignored his suggestion. But when Hada wrote a letter requesting alcohol, the next day, Yang sent someone with four kilos of liquor³ the next day (two large plastic tubs of Niulanshan Erguotou [a strong liquor made from sorghum]). Leaving aside Yang’s personal motive for doing this, objectively speaking, if Hada drank all four kilos of liquor in one go, who would be responsible if something happened? Never have I heard of a case anywhere in the world in which a supervisory authority sends the person  being watching four kilos of liquor in one go. Whether this was Yang’s idea or someone else’s it should be investigated thoroughly. While his legitimate request for reading materials is denied, he is generously supplied with four kilos of liquor. Comparing the two scenarios, one wonders what the motives are. The answer is obvious. I believe that Hada’s current mental and physical state is directly related to Yang’s supervision. Jinye Park⁴ may have a beautiful external environment, but the main entrance to the second floor where Hada is detained is always tightly locked. Whenever he wants to go out, he would ask for a long time, but no one would open the gate. I have asked them many times to open the gate on the second floor so that Hada can easily go downstairs to walk around in the small courtyard whenever he wants. Moreover, the courtyard is wired with an electric fence, and there are armed police keeping watch outside. But Yang ignored my requests. The reason is that so long as the gate to the second floor remains locked, the guards do not have to watch Hada and thus have less to do. Then there is the question of medical treatment, which was stopped during the period when they banned family visits. Isn't it you who had allowed Hada to see the doctor? Why did Yang not carry out his proper duty? If the people previously watching over Hada were a bit more humane, Hada would not be so withdrawn as he is today. Incidentally, let me reveal a secret: withholding toilet paper in a detention center is a dirty trick used by prison overlords to punish inmates. Yang actually used this tactic on Hada throughout the year, including the time when he, his wife, and his son were being held. One can get a glimpse of Yang’s character from this. That is why we worry about Hada being supervised by Yang and firmly demand his dismissal.
3. I hope that you have a conscience, and bring to justice the heartless culprit who has persecuted my son. In Chinese history, taking sons and daughters as hostages and collateral is a despicable act used by feudal despots. In the persecuting of my family, why are the children targeted? After my arrest in December 2010, because my son disclosed information to the outside world, public security falsely accused him of illegal possession of drugs and detained him. After my son’s release, he kept his promises, but public security unilaterally breached that agreement. Because I accepted interviews with foreign media, I was not allowed to see Hada.  They forbade my son to visit his father, depriving him of his visitation rights for no reason. The ongoing tailing and harassment of my son have been even more outrageous, and severely infringed on his personal freedom and dignity. When he resisted, public security ripped his school bag and confiscated his cellphone. When he could no longer tolerate it, he accepted an overseas interview. Always, the public security is the one being unreasonable first, and he is the one who resists in defense afterwards. Also, when he went out to work to help out on family expenses, he was let go from his job as a result of meddling by public security. On top of prohibiting our family from opening a shop to sell the hundreds of thousands of yuan’s worth of goods piled up at home in order to support ourselves, [my son’s] work as a waiter was also flagrantly interfered with. Before the Spring Festival when he gave an interview to a foreign reporter, they even reduced his living stipend. In the end, are you going to give him a way to survive? Spring Festival is approaching and public security has further escalated the persecution of our family; our home has not the slightest trace of holiday atmosphere. Don’t tell me that your happiness must be built on our suffering.

Sincerely,

Xinna

Letter to Wang Jun, newly-appointed Party Secretary of Inner Mongolia

from Hada’s son Uiles

[English translation by Human Rights in China]

January 20, 2013

Party Secretary Wang Jun of Inner Mongolia:

Hello, my name is Uiles, 29, son of Hada and Xinna. Today I am writing you to ask you to please listen to my appeal, restore my innocence, and urge the Public Security Department in Inner Mongolia to stop the endless persecution of me and my family.

In December 2010, the Public Security Department of Inner Mongolia’s persecution of my family reached its climax. Before December 10, 2010, the day my father was released from prison, my mother was detained on December 3, and I on December 5.

One year later, the Domestic Security Brigade of the Public Security Department of Inner Mongolia asked me to make several guarantees in writing, and I was released on bail on September 17, 2011.

After being released, I naively believed that my father and mother would also regain their freedom soon. Instead, in April 2012, what I had waited for turned out to be a 3-year prison sentence suspended for five years which my mother received as a result of the conviction of “illegal business operation.”

Not only has my father not been released, he has also been treated inhumanly by the police.

During the Party’s 18th Congress, the Public Security Department of Inner Mongolia progressively tightened surveillance on me. After I resisted them, they grabbed and damage my school bag, beat me, and robbed me of my cell phone.

I couldn’t tolerate it anymore; I broke my silence and revealed the truth to the international community. The next day, the Domestic Security Brigade took back the camera they had lent me.

Originally I had thought that they lent me a camera as compensation-in-disguise to allay their uneasy conscience after framing me for “illegal possession of drugs.” In retrospect, it was just something they used to buy my silence.

In order to cover up their evil deeds, to date, the Inner Mongolia Public Security Department is still blocking the Internet access and phone line at our home. I am threatened even when I go out to meet my friends. All these have placed my mother and me in an extremely difficult situation and turned us into prisoners wherever we are. Recently, the malicious obstruction of our activities and our persecution have intensified. Please look at the facts:

1. Last fall, we were preparing to sell 30,000 yuan’s worth of books in order to pay our rent. But the police threatened the buyer and blocked the deal just as the buyer was about to take the books after putting down a deposit. To date, the buyer still does not dare even answer our calls.
2. In this predicament—not being allowed to operate our bookstore or sell our books in storage—and having no alternatives, I went out to work as a waiter. Some 20 days after I started, I was politely let go by my boss. It turned out that ever since I was hired, my boss was repeatedly intimidated by the police, who asked him to dismiss me or his shop would be shut down.
3. Recently the police substation said we were allowed to sell our books in storage, but that they had to find the buyer. It is ludicrous that if we were to look for a buyer ourselves, we would be accused of engaging in illegal business. In the end, nothing came of this after several negotiations with the substation.
4. As the Chinese New Year approaches, the living stipend I was receiving was cut again for no reason, making our lives even worse right before the holidays. While other families are in high spirits and looking forward to family reunions, my mother and I are trapped at home, longing for my father who is in illegal detention near us. So I have no choice but to ask for your help:
   1. Allow us to sell our books in storage on our own before the New Year, so that we can enter the New Year in comfort.
   2. Do not interfere in my livelihood and stop preventing me from working. From now on, I will no longer want your charity, so that we can free ourselves from the grip of your power. I will earn my own living, as I did the past.
   3. My mother is not allowed to run a shop, but my right to do that is protected by law. After the New Year holidays, I intend to re-open the bookstore and handle the inventory. I hope the official would not put up obstacles again.
   4. Unblock our home phone and Internet service before the New Year; safeguard the rights to which we are entitled.
   5. We request a criminal investigation of the persons responsible for framing me in the illegal possession of drugs case, and holding them criminally liable in accordance with the law, and restore my innocence.

These are my five demands.

After the Party’s 18th Congress, you are the number one person in Inner Mongolia. I hope you govern in accordance with the law, reform from the bottom, and use the power of the new regime to rid the harm of the old regime. In ancient times, laying siege to a city was never intended as an act to kill its people. Can it be that such a big Inner Mongolia would today resort to exterminating a mother and son who are pleading for justice? If you pretend not to hear us and force us into a corner, our only option is to appeal to higher levels of the government and the international community.

Sincerely,

Uiles, a Mongolian citizen