AFP: Jailed U.S. Falun Gong Woman Forbidden From Speaking to Family

BEIJING, Nov 24, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A US resident and Falun Gong practitioner jailed for trying to document the government's abuse against the group has not been allowed to see or call her family since she was arrested in May, the group's New York office said Friday.

Gail Rachlin, spokeswoman for the group, said Teng Chunyan's husband, an American citizen, had travelled to China hoping to see her, but has been denied access.

"We've contacted the (US) State Department, senators, congressmen. I don't know what else we can do," Rachlin told AFP Friday.

Rachlin said she did not believe the 37-year-old acupuncturist from New York would be tortured like other arrested members of the banned Falun Gong group, but police may be trying to force her to reveal information about Chinese Falun Gong practitioners she has contacted.

Teng was tried in a one-day secret trial Thursday on charges of "prying into state intelligence for overseas organisations" at the Beijing Intermediate People's Court.

She is accused of arranging an interview between foreign reporters and Falun Gong members who had been incarcerated in a mental hospital.

Fifty practitioners from a rural district in Beijing were locked up in the hospital for more than a month to prevent them from going to Tiananmen Square to protest the ban against the group.

Teng is also accused of collaborating with Falun Gong members to take pictures of practitioners detained in the hospital and passing the photos on to foreign media.

A verdict is expected to be announced in a week and Teng faces a minimum of 10 years in jail if convicted.

Teng, who is married to a US citizen, is the first overseas member of the Falun Gong to be tried in China and only the second US green card holder, the center said.

The green card, or immigration card, entitles her to live in the United States, but she is not a citizen, which means she would not be able to enjoy consular protection in China.

Frank Lu, director of the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, said Teng was held for more than a month before she was formally charged, which violates Chinese criminal law.

She was arrested on May 13 and her family was not informed of the arrest until October, the center said. She was not formally charged until July 27.

A Falun Gong practitioner for about two years, Teng gave up her acupuncture practice on Fifth Avenue in New York to travel to China, in hopes of collecting evidence of the government's maltreatment of Falun Gong members.

"Her main objective was to expose the truth to the world about the atrocities," Rachlin said.

China banned the Falun Gong movement in July last year and launched a massive crackdown which saw leaders jailed for up to 18 years and thousands of followers sent to prison or labor camps. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)

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