Shanghai Minhang District 70-year-old petitioner Liu Jiemei was assaulted twice by security guards with security inspection devices during her petition visits to the Shanghai High People’s Court at the end of June and early July. The assaults resulted in a fractured nasal bone, but the police not only refused to file a case but also confiscated Liu Jiemei’s medical examination report. Recently, Liu Jiemei requested the Minhang Public Security Sub-bureau to investigate the incident.
After her house was unlawfully demolished in 1999, Liu Jiemei has not been resettled. Without prior notice, the authorities also transferred her daughter’s household registration, depriving her daughter of her personal rights and leading to her daughter’s mental disorder. In 2000, her husband committed suicide due to the intense pressure from petitioning for rights.
After 26 years of petitioning, the case has been submitted to the Supreme Court, but Liu Jiemei’s issues remain unresolved. Liu Jiemei told a reporter from Dajiyuan, “I have been injured multiple times during my petition visits to the court, and the suppression from petitioning has caused me to be riddled with illnesses.”
On the morning of June 30th, around 11 o’clock, Liu Jiemei went to petition at the Shanghai High People’s Court. She was pulled out of the petition hall by four security guards. They pushed her to the ground and a female security guard came and verbally abused her while pushing her out of the petition hall.
Liu Jiemei said, “I sat in front of the High Court for more than three hours before I gradually recovered. The next day, I had severe back pain at home. On the morning of July 2nd, I went to the petition hall of the High Court, asking the female security guard to go to the hospital with me for a medical examination. She used the security inspection device to hit my head and face, while two male security guards held me down for her to hit. My head was hit over ten times, then I called the police.”
The police from the Gumei Police Station responded, checked the surveillance footage, and then took Liu Jiemei to the police station for questioning. In the evening, she went to the hospital for a medical examination around 5 o’clock and only returned home after 8 o’clock.
“On July 14th, I went to the police station to file a case, handed the medical examination report to the police, but they did not file a case. I contacted the station leaders, and they said that because the assault incident occurred in the court, it should be handled by the court as a dispute case, and they have no authority to file a case. I said, ‘Then give me back the medical report,’ but they refused. The assault turned into a dispute case, so I had to go back to the High Court to find the leaders. Four male security guards came out again, dragging and beating me, causing injuries all over my body. I once again called the police and went to the police station for questioning.”
Gu Guoping, a retired Shanghai University teacher and human rights activist, said, “Staff members of the Shanghai High People’s Court physically assaulted a petitioner in her 70s, causing a nasal bone fracture, evidence of intentional personal injury, which is suspected of intentional injury, but the public security agencies concealed the crime.”
“We found a document titled ‘Regarding whether law enforcement officials of state administrative agencies should be subject to public security penalties for illegal acts during the performance of their duties,’ which was a request for the opinion of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s Legal Affairs Committee in 2005. Recently, based on this document, we have submitted an application for reconsideration to the Minhang District Government. The letter emphasized: according to the Criminal Law, if a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be borne. This case is a typical case where criminal responsibility should be borne,” he said.
Gu Guoping also mentioned, “We found that the column for the name of the receiving police officer in the receipt of the Minhang Public Security Sub-bureau was left blank, with the signature of Liu Jiemei, but she claimed she did not sign it. We requested the Minhang Public Security Sub-bureau to explain this or conduct a handwriting analysis. At the same time, the duty police officer confiscated the medical report, destroying the evidence of the victim’s minor injuries, covering up the crime evidence.”
Liu Jiemei demands that the Minhang Public Security Sub-bureau file an investigation into the assault incident.