Lu Xuancheng (路选成) is a resident of Tuole Village, Shiqiao Township, Pan County of Liupanshui City, Guizhou Province. In 2008, the local government demanded that he relocate the tombstone factory he operated in his unoccupied backyard. On August 20, 2009, Gu Yong (顾勇), Party Secretary of Shiqiao Township, led nearly a hundred policemen from the local police station and thugs to besiege his residence. As Lu Xuancheng escaped to the rooftop, Liu Ya (刘亚), Director of the local police station, fired three shots at him. Later, Lu Xuancheng was sentenced to eight months in prison for obstructing official business. After years of fruitless petitioning, his daughter wrote a letter to overseas human rights organizations to help her urge the Chinese government to punish policeman Liu Ya for deliberately shooting and wounding his father, and Secretary Gu Yong for violating the law and relevant regulations.

Appendix: An appeal on behalf of Tuole villager Lu Xuancheng (with official documents and photos)

Calling on Human Rights Organizations to Urge the Chinese Government to Severely Punish Policeman Liu Ya for Shooting and Wounding Innocent Citizen Lu Xuancheng

Honorable Sirs and Madams at Human Rights in China,

My name is Lu Huilian (路会莲), and I am a villager of the fourth group of Tuole Village, Shiqiao Township, Pan County of Liupanshui City in Guizhou Province. I am a 31-yearl-old female of Han ethnicity. My ID number is 520202198311052425.

At 11 a.m. on August 20 of 2009, Gu Yong, Party Secretary of Shiqiao Township, Pan County, Liupanshui City of Guizhou Province, led a group of around 100 people and surrounded the residence of my family. At that time, only my aged parents (Lu Xuancheng and Jiang Yingxian) were at home. We are all legal citizens. My parents were so scared that they escaped to the rooftop. Party Secretary Gu Yong, emboldened by the size of his group, allowed no explanation from my parents. At his command, the Shiqiao Public Security Bureau Chief Liu Ya carried a handgun and jumped onto the rooftop of Lu Yuanfeng’s bungalow—which was about the same height as our rooftop—and blocked my parents’ path. Aiming at my father, Liu Ya opened fire and shot through his right leg. Then, like bandits, Liu and others pounced onto our rooftop and savagely beat up my parents with truncheons and rubber sticks. My parents were wounded all over. Apart from the gunshot wound, my father sustained a cut on his forehead and broken teeth. My mother was nearly paralyzed and unable to walk. I dare not imagine what more could’ve happened if my two siblings and I were home that day.

After the incident, we made multiple requests to the Pan County People’s Procuratorate and the Public Security Bureau to hold policeman Liu Ya criminally responsible for intentional shooting in accordance with the law. Not only did the Pan County People’s Procuratorate and the Public Security Bureau deny our requests, one prosecutor at the People’s Procuratorate even said to us these cold-hearted words: “a policeman must at least shoot one person to death and severely injure three for the case to be filed (we have voice recording as evidence).” They protected Liu Ya from criminal responsibility and persecuted my father, forcing me and my family to travel extensively in our quest for judicial authorities at all levels to bring the culprit to justice. However, the judicial authorities of Liupanshui, Guizhou defied the Constitution, covered up the unlawful, criminal activity of Liu Ya and Gu Yong, and oppressed my entire family.

Liupanshui’s judicial authorities also covered up a May 19 shooting: policeman Liu Deyong (刘德勇) went beyond his precinct armed, committed burglary, and shot an innocent young man Chen Jun (陈军) to death. Liupanshui Public Security Bureau, however, in a complete distortion of the story, falsely alleged that Liu Deyong was “performing public duties” and that Chen Jun was trying to “snatch the gun.” They also classified Liu Deyong’s intentional shooting of the innocent as “self-defense.” Chen’s brother-in-law Ding Fayou (丁发友), in his attempts to sue Liu in court, suffered detention, reeducation through labor, imprisonment, and beatings by the local public security bureau, and sustained severe head and arm injuries. Yet Liu Deyong still kept his job at the public security bureau up until this day. After policeman Liu Ya deliberately shot and wounded my father on August 20, the judicial authorities of Liupanshui adopted the same cover-up techniques as the May 19 case. They framed my father and covered the criminal activities of Liu Ya and Gu Yong, which forced me to repeatedly bring the case to judicial authorities in Beijing. The local public security bureau not only failed to hold Liu Ya criminally responsible, but also promoted him to lead the public security team of Liuhe Village in Pan County.

In 2015, my parents and I once again petitioned in Beijing. On March 6, Liu Yulong, the current director of Shiqiao Police Station phoned me and told me to come home to settle the August 20 case in which Liu Ya deliberately shot and wounded my father. On March 16, 2015, at the notification of Director Liu Yulong, we talked with Pan County’s Letters and Visits Bureau. The bureau’s director Liao Hongxing (廖红星), however, refused to settle the case, and said, “Liu Ya and Gu Yong assumed that you were going to attack them while you were in fact going to do some farm work. It was therefore a misunderstanding. Instead of thinking that you were going to chop some fodder, they thought you were going to stab them (we have voice recording as evidence).” Secretary Gu Yong and Liu Ya abused their powers, defied the Constitution, and intentionally shot and wounded my father. However, Director Liao slighted such a grave matter casually using words like “assumed” or “thought.” Pan County’s authorities not only failed to investigate into Liu Ya and Gu Yong’s responsibilities according to the law, but also framed my father and forced my family on the endless path of petitioning, leaving our finances undermined, our energies sapped, and my youth wasted. Gu Yong and Liu Ya relied on their power and connections, defied the Constitution, trampled on my parents’ legal rights, and intentionally shot and wounded my father. While in serious violation of the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, they were shielded by the Liupanshui’s People’s Procuratorate and Public Security Bureau and received no prosecution.

Liupanshui authorities’ judicial corruption and miscarriage of justice deprived my whole family of basic human rights. While other countries uphold rule of law, in China, law is overridden by the rich and powerful local governments; even decrees issued by the Central Government are met with contempt and disobedience. Having gone through all available channels to address our grievances in vain, we are at our wits’ end. Merciless and unconscionable, the local public security bureau and procuratorate collude in distorting the truth, neglect their duty, and manufacture wrongful convictions. While it was evident that my father was intentionally shot and wounded, they imposed on my father the charge of “disrupting official duties,” and claimed that Liu Ya and Gu Yong were “performing official duties” when unlawfully surrounding our home. My father was on the rooftop, and our house is not part of the demolition project. What kind of official duties were there to perform, and on the roof? Evidently, the local public security bureau and procuratorate fabricated the truth and covered the criminal activities of Gu Yong and policeman Liu Ya, who intentionally fired shots. My family and I paid multiple visits to law enforcement agencies in hopes to bring Liu Ya to justice according to the law. However, they refused to investigate the case for Liu’s criminal responsibility and misused their power to suppress my family. They told us that they were not afraid and that nobody would ever take our case, unless we went to the United Nations. Even a promiscuous woman knows her shame and would cover herself. Authorities at the judicial organs of Liupanshui in Guizhou Province, however, know no shame, and like a stage-IV cancer patient, they are beyond cure. By means of suppression and deprivation of our rights to appeal, they bully innocent people while concealing their crimes from their superiors. Given the sins they’ve committed, even a feudal dynasty seems preferable. People are forced into opposition with the government, creating social disability and disharmony, and cornering us to a dead end.

I hereby plead international human rights organizations to call on the Chinese government to severely punish policeman Liu Ya for intentionally shooting and wounding my father Lu Xuancheng, and Secretary Gu Yong for violating laws and regulations!

Appellant: Lu Huilian
Tel: 15985693112
March 18, 2015