Appeal in Beijing
Yang and 40 of his employees arrived in Beijing in the afternoon to accuse the court of unlawful practice and for assault and battery on his employees.
Meanwhile, the local district-level court sent a written suggestion to the city-level court the same day, claiming that Yang had committed a crime by attacking a government department and "should register a case in court." The next day, the city-level court was approved to deal with the case.
Having no knowledge of this, Yang and his group went to the State Bureau of Letters and Calls (SBLC) on the morning the September 29 and were given an immediate reception.
The SBLC called in an official from the Nanyang liaison office in Beijing, who advised Yang to solve the problem back in Nanyang, since Yang's move had placed great pressure on local government, which had been performing well in handling petitions from the public.
On October 1, Yang was called to meet two senior judicial officers from the district-level court of Nanyang at a teahouse near Tian'anmen Square. The officers advised Yang to go home and promised to settle the dispute.
Yang finally agreed and went back to Nanyang the next morning. However, quite expectedly,he was arrested as soon as he stepped into the city.
Life in jail
On October 12, Yang was taken away by police because, according to the court report, "Yang's acts were illegal and gang related." He was put into a detention house the next day, where he was reportedly tortured.
Yang listed 15 types of tortures to his lawyer, including that he had been caged with a mongrel wolf, licked by a police dog and hung aloft.
Records from the court show that Yang had refused to admit his guilt many times. Yang wrote in one inquiry record from November 25 that "the notes are not true. The court and police were extorting confessions by torture, threats, intimidation and deceit."
On May 27 this year, Yang was finally charged with six crimes, including leading an underground organization, disturbing social order, carrying out forcible trade and creating disturbances.
The most heated dispute lies in the charge that Yang was engaged in gang related activities, which, according to Yang's lawyer, is groundless, since Yang's company is legal and never committed any crime.
However, the prosecution pointed out that Yang had "forcibly occupied people's properties," citing a report in the Henan Daily and online posts on Baidu Tieba. They added that Yang had forced his employees to study the three books mentioned above in order to brainwash them.
"A country would be terrible without law," sighed Yang in court on July 14.
He was eventually sentenced to 20 years in jail and fined 400,000 yuan according to the first instance ruling on July 30.
Refusing to accept the ruling, Yang lodged an appeal with the city's intermediate court on September 14 and is now waiting for the second instance.
Yang's lawyer said that Yang is extremely feeble now and hoping to make bail.
