Northwest Guardian | Famous environmentalist Li Genshan was wrongly imprisoned, insisted on reporting in prison and was held in a “small dark room”, and his wife was not allowed to visit

After the famous environmentalist Li Genshan from Zhongwei, Ningxia, was unjustly sentenced to three years and nine months in prison, he is expected to be released on June 9, 2024, upon completion of his sentence, and will continue to do public welfare work. Environmental volunteers from all over the country have been planning various activities, hoping to help Li Genshan receive more just treatment.

Li Genshan is a native of Zhongwei, Ningxia, and a self-initiated environmental and wildlife protection volunteer. Seeing the serious pollution in his hometown, he voluntarily conducted research and reported it. He once exposed the major pollution case of Tengger Desert, which attracted the high attention of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Eventually, the enterprise involved paid nearly 200 million yuan in ecological compensation and restoration funds. Seeing the severe ecological damage in his hometown, especially the development of metal minerals, which led to the hollowing out of the mountains, he insisted on reporting it, which attracted the attention of the China Ecological Environment Supervision Team. The phenomenon of indiscriminate mining in Zhongwei, Ningxia, was curbed. Seeing the strong poaching atmosphere in Zhongwei, Ningxia, and that the local forest public security department not only turned a blind eye but also colluded with poachers, he voluntarily organized volunteers to conduct research and patrol, hoping to move the poachers and make them put down their guns, poisons, and animal traps.

Unfortunately, the relevant party and government departments of Zhongwei, Ningxia, have always held a hateful and suspicious attitude towards environmental volunteers like Li Genshan, who are self-initiated, self-conscious, and voluntary. They always feel that their patrols and reports are smearing the local image, hindering local economic development, and affecting the future of local party and government leaders. Therefore, in order to get rid of Li Genshan, He Jian, the then secretary of the Zhongwei Municipal Party Committee, asked the local public security department to allocate elite manpower to establish a special case team for Li Genshan in August 2020, to label him as a “criminal gang” and strive to sentence him quickly, heavily, and swiftly.

Fortunately, heaven has eyes, and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission of our country have always been clear-sighted. Not long after, He Jian was directly taken down by the Ningxia Autonomous Region Discipline Inspection Commission, and then received the punishment he deserved for various crimes. However, although He Jian sent himself to prison, his decisions still had lingering influence. The local public security bureau, procuratorate, and court in Zhongwei, Ningxia, were unwilling to take the initiative to correct their mistakes and still firmly supported He Jian to the end, sentencing Li Genshan and others to different terms of imprisonment.

Li Genshan’s main charges are two. The first is “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” The court’s meaning is that if an ordinary citizen, without obtaining the “appointment and permission” of the party and government, actually takes the initiative to protect the ecological environment, wants to do what is right, wants to prevent pollution, destruction, and poaching, then he is picking quarrels and provoking trouble, is violating laws and regulations, and should be subject to criminal punishment. Such a judgment in Zhongwei, Ningxia, made all the private public welfare people across the country take a breath of cold air, and everyone was afraid that doing public welfare would instead bring them jail time.

Li Genshan’s second charge is the crime of dangerous, precious, and endangered wild animals. The court believes that Li Genshan once “organized” volunteers to patrol the mountains at night. The patrol team was divided into two groups. The group where Li Genshan was located, due to excessive speed, hit and injured a national second-class protected animal, the “yellow sheep,” which led to its death the next day; another group had a volunteer who privately carried a hunting dog that bit and killed a “yellow sheep.” Therefore, the court determined that Li Genshan was using the banner of protecting wild animals, but was actually harming wild animals. And for this reason, he was sentenced to the corresponding crime.

Li Genshan had no way to defend himself and has always refused to “plead guilty and accept punishment.” He said that he believes in Taoism and is absolutely impossible to “share” wild animals; the volunteers who participated in the patrol are each responsible for their own behavior, he is not the team leader and cannot drive, and it is impossible to intentionally organize everyone to go to the desert to “hunt” in the middle of the night. Despite this, both the first-instance court and the second-instance court still insisted on their judgments.

Li Genshan was extremely angry. After he was imprisoned, he has been actively seeking relevant clues and continuing to report; sometimes he even clashed with the prison guards. Because of his stubbornness, the prison guards were very troubled, and for this reason, they repeatedly put him in solitary confinement for a long time. This long-term solitary confinement is commonly known as a small black room, and sometimes a person is locked inside for as long as three months or even half a year.

According to the relevant regulations of the Chinese courts, after a “prisoner” is officially sentenced by the court and sent to prison to serve his sentence, his family can visit him. But for some reason, the relevant prisons in Zhongwei, Ningxia, have always refused to allow Li Genshan’s wife, daughter, and son to visit.

Environmental volunteers hereby appeal to the Ningxia Justice Bureau and the Ningxia Prison Administration Bureau, in the spirit of humanitarianism, to allow Li Genshan to receive visits from his family, so that his family can more truly understand Li Genshan’s psychological state, and also help to alleviate Li Genshan’s longing for his family.

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