【Series Report (4)】The Chinese Communist Party’s Inhuman Atrocities Against Human Rights Defender Shen Aibin in Wuxi: His Minor Daughter Implicated, Persecuted and Sentenced

On November 16, 2020, the Liangxi District Court of Wuxi issued Criminal Judgment No. （2020）Su 0213 Xing Chu 564（because the case involved a minor, the judgment and the charge were not made public）, sentencing Shen Aibin’s minor daughter to two years and eight months in prison. Following an appeal, the Wuxi Intermediate People’s Court issued Criminal Ruling No. （2020）Su 02 Xing Zhong 366 on December 30, 2020, ruling to reject the appeal and uphold the original judgment.

This case was deliberately plotted and initiated by Zhou Jun, then director of the Liangxi Branch of the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau; deputy director Zheng Bangxian; and Shen Qi, head of the Legal Affairs Brigade, in order to attack, suppress and retaliate against Shen Aibin. It is a blatant case of bending the law for personal interests, judicial corruption and implicating and persecuting others, fabricated by the criminal-underworld elements within Wuxi’s judicial system with the aim of retaliation and entrapment and using a perverse judgment as the means. It is ironclad evidence of the inhuman, criminal-underworld atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Party’s criminal judicial elements in Wuxi.

I. How the case came to light:

In April 2020, the pandemic was severe in Wuxi, and all schools in the city suspended classes. Shen Aibin’s daughter was also at home because of the suspension. On April 6, a classmate invited her to go out, but there was nowhere to go, so several classmates agreed to book a room at a hotel. After they arrived at the room, one of the students brought along a young girl whom none of the others knew（the victim in this case, Sha, who was also a minor）. After a while, that student left, leaving the unknown girl at the hotel. Since the girl had a cellphone without a SIM card, she wanted to use other people’s mobile hotspots to access the internet. Moreover, while everyone was resting, the girl continually made noise without regard for the quiet environment. As a result, the others gradually found her annoying and began to dislike her. They asked her to leave several times, but she refused. That evening, several male classmates came over to play. The girls mentioned that the young girl was very annoying and was refusing to leave. The boys therefore asked her to go, but she still refused and got into an argument with them. As a result, one of the boys hit the girl, and several of the girls also took action. Shen Aibin’s daughter was among them.

II. How the case was handled:

On the morning of April 7, 2020, the young girl left the hotel and borrowed someone else’s phone to call her mother. When her mother arrived, she found that the girl’s cellphone was missing, so she reported to the police that the phone had been snatched. After investigating, Tongjiang Police Station of the Liangxi Branch of the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau discovered that Shen Aibin’s daughter was among those involved and immediately reported the matter to the branch.

On April 8, 2020, Cai Jue, the police officer handling the case at Tongjiang Police Station, notified Shen Aibin by telephone to bring his daughter to the police station. Shen Aibin immediately took his daughter there. As soon as they entered, Cai Jue said to Shen Aibin: “Because Sha reported that she had been beaten by your daughter and several others, the branch has already opened a case for the crime of picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” Shen Aibin found this somewhat unbelievable: the case had immediately been opened for criminal investigation merely because Sha had reported it?! His daughter was then summoned for 24 hours. On April 9, compulsory residential bail measures were taken against Shen’s daughter on suspicion of picking quarrels and provoking trouble（see Attachment 1）.

On April 20, 2020, police officer Cai Jue notified Shen Aibin to collect the Notice of Forensic Assessment Opinion（see Attachment 2）. The Liangxi Branch of the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau commissioned relevant personnel to assess the degree of injury suffered by the victim, Sha. The assessment opinion stated: “Sha Dongziyi’s degree of injury is minor.” Shen Aibin had thought that after obtaining this assessment opinion, the branch should immediately revoke the opening of the criminal case, because according to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security’s standard for opening a case for “beating others at will,” the threshold was “one person sustaining a minor injury and two people sustaining slight injuries.” Since there was only one person, Sha, a minor injury was required before a case could be opened. Yet the Liangxi Branch continued to open the case in violation of the law.

On May 29, 2020, the Liangxi Branch of the Wuxi Municipal Public Security Bureau suddenly sought approval for arrest on the charge of “robbery.” After hearing Shen Aibin’s views, prosecutor Zhou Qingyuan of the Juvenile Prosecution Division of the Liangxi District Procuratorate strongly agreed with them and considered the grounds for seeking approval of the arrest insufficient（see Attachment 3: Form for Hearing the Opinion of the Statutory Representative in a Criminal Case）. However, on June 5, the Liangxi District Procuratorate approved the arrest after changing the charge.

On November 16, 2020, the Liangxi District Court sentenced Shen Aibin’s daughter at first instance to two years and eight months in prison. Following an appeal, the Wuxi Intermediate People’s Court rejected it in violation of the law. On March 20, 2021, Shen Aibin’s daughter was transferred from the Wuxi Women’s Detention Center to the Zhenjiang Women’s Prison（juvenile correctional facility）. She was released after completing her sentence in October 2022.

While persecuting Shen Aibin’s daughter, the Liangxi Public Security Branch was also abusing its authority to persecute Shen Aibin. The third criminal case against Shen Aibin was unlawfully opened on May 14, 2020; he was placed under residential surveillance on May 17; and on the day his daughter was sentenced at first instance, he was placed under residential bail instead. While his daughter was serving her sentence in Zhenjiang, Shen was arrested for the third time. When his daughter was released, Shen was still being held at the Wuxi Detention Center. This was a bizarre criminal-underworld incident in the human world.

III. This was a case of implicating and persecuting others, deliberately plotted and fabricated by Wuxi’s judicial criminals against Shen Aibin

After Shen’s daughter was arrested, veteran police officers at the Liangxi Branch, who had previously had work-related dealings with Shen, said to him whenever they saw him: “You caused harm to your daughter. There are several cases like this every day at our police station. We handle them as civil disputes through mediation. When they found out that it was your daughter, their eyes lit up and they immediately reported it to the branch.”

The defense lawyer stated bluntly: “The Investigation and Assessment Opinion prepared for Shen Aibin’s daughter and the Letter Concerning Strict Confidentiality of the ‘Investigation and Assessment Opinion’ on Shen Jiayi（see Attachment 4）are sufficient on their own to prove that this case arose because of Shen Aibin. Looking at the case as a whole, the facts were not clearly established and the evidence was insufficient. Moreover, there was a deliberate distortion of the facts and an illegal finding of circumstances such as ‘public place’ and ‘gathering,’ in order to increase the sentencing range and carry out the persecution.”

This case was originally merely a simple civil dispute arising from a trivial matter between children. Simply because Shen Aibin’s daughter participated, Wuxi’s judicial criminals deliberately turned it into a criminal case through sensationalization.

IV. The following illegal acts were committed by Wuxi’s judicial criminals in this case:

1. Illegal opening of a case. The legal threshold for opening a case under Article 293, paragraph 1, item (1) of the Criminal Law, concerning “beating others at will,” was not met, yet a criminal case was unlawfully opened.

2. Illegal submission of a request for approval of arrest. Without having established when, by whom or by what means the cellphone was taken, or whether it had simply been lost, they sought approval for arrest on a charge of robbery. Its whereabouts have still not been established.

3. The facts were not clearly established and the evidence was insufficient, yet the existence of “criminal facts” was determined solely on the basis of testimony and subjective speculation.

4. A dispute that happened incidentally inside a hotel room was unlawfully deemed to have occurred in a “public place,” and three or more people who had naturally gathered were deemed to constitute a “gathering.” The law was thereby abused to increase the sentencing range. This was a typical act of persecution.

5. In order to prevent Shen’s daughter from receiving a suspended sentence, the Liangxi District Justice Bureau fabricated an Investigation and Assessment Opinion by completely inventing facts and defaming and slandering Shen’s daughter. In order to conceal this carefully fabricated opinion and prevent its fabrication of facts, defamation and slander from being exposed, it then abused its authority to produce the Letter Concerning Strict Confidentiality of the ‘Investigation and Assessment Opinion’ on Shen Jiayi, while also extensively denigrating, defaming and slandering Shen Aibin.

In summary, it is evident that this case was a case of implicating and persecuting others, deliberately fabricated by Wuxi’s criminal judicial elements through the intentional abuse of authority, distortion of facts and abuse of the law in order to attack, retaliate against and entrap Shen Aibin. This is immediately clear from the case files and the entire process of handling the case.

V. List of the evildoers who bent the law for personal interests in this case:

1.Investigating authorities:

Zhou Jun, Zheng Bangxian, Shen Qi and Cai Jue;

2.Procuratorial authorities:

Du Xiaohua, head of the Juvenile Prosecution Division of the Liangxi District Procuratorate;

Zhou Qingyuan, then a staff member of the Juvenile Prosecution Division of the Liangxi District Procuratorate, now promoted to director of the Political and Legal Affairs Department;

3.Adjudicating authorities:

Shen Libo, Zhang Hongyuan and Wu Hanlie, members of the first-instance collegiate panel;

Chen Jingyu（deputy president）, Ma Xiaowei and Xu Haihong, members of the second-instance collegiate panel;

Yang Liu, second-instance judicial assistant, abusing authority and committing wrongdoing—how many people will she harm before she retires?

Next report: 【Series Report (5)】The Chinese Communist Party’s Inhuman Atrocities Against Human Rights Defender Shen Aibin in Wuxi: Using Ultra-Strong Electromagnetic Radiation and High-Frequency Sound Waves to Attack and Harm Shen Aibin

Attachment 1: Decision on Residential Bail

Attachment 2: Notice of Forensic Assessment Opinion

Attachment 3: Form for Hearing the Opinion of the Statutory Representative in a Criminal Case

Attachment 4: Letter Concerning Strict Confidentiality of the “Investigation and Assessment Opinion” on Shen Jiayi