(Minghui.org)

Summary of Key Persecution Facts:
Name: Yang Muhua (杨木花)
Gender: Female
Age: 43
Address: Residential area of the Anning Phosphate Industry Company
Occupation : Former Assistant Engineer with Yuntianhua International, Inc.
Date of Most Recent Arrest: May 26, 2013
Most Recent Place of Detention: Kunming City Detention Center (昆明市看守所)
City: Kunming
Province: Yunnan
Persecution Suffered : Forced labor, illegal sentencing, imprisonment, fired from workplace, home ransacked, interrogation, detention

Ms. Yang Muhua was arrested on May 26, 2013, and has been held in custody in the Kunming City Detention Center. She was put on trial in Anning City Court on November 27, 2013. Twenty minutes into the proceedings, the defense lawyer asked the prosecutor to withdraw because his name did not match the name on the trial document. Since the prosecutor could not explain the discrepancy, the judge declared the trial adjourned.

Ms. Yang, 43, was an assistant engineer of Yuntianhua International Inc. She began to practice Falun Gong in 1999. Her health and temperament both improved. She also stopped being so focused on her own gain.

After the persecution of Falun Gong began, company officials threatened her to try to force her to renounce Falun Gong and hand in her Falun Gong books. But Ms. Yang refused to comply.

Several officers from the Anning Domestic Security Division and the Lianran Police Station went to Ms. Yang's home on the afternoon of April 25, 2006, and ransacked it. They did not show any documentation and made a big mess. Her then-8-year-old child was frightened and started to cry. The police confiscated Falun Gong books, a computer, an MP3 player, a printer and other belongings. Ms. Yang was arrested and taken to the Anning City Police Department. She was later detained in the Anning City Detention Center and her family wasn't notified.

Ms. Yang was fired from her job shortly after her arrest. The police went to where her husband, Mr. Li Zhixin, worked to interrogate him about his wife. Mr. Li told them that she did not violate any laws and refused to give in. He was forced to leave his company, too.

The Kunming City Procuratorate filed a lawsuit against Ms. Yang on August 16, 2006. Her husband hired a defense lawyer for her. However, neither her family nor her lawyer was not notified of her trial. The Kunming City Intermediate Court sentenced her to three years in prison. She was sent to the Yunnan Province No. 2 Women's Prison in October 2006.

In prison she was forced to sit on a small stool for a long period of time because she refused to renounce Falun Gong. Later, she was made to do slave labor. She was released on May 24, 2008. However, the officials of the local residential committee and Ye Lin, the director of the Anning Domestic Security Division, often went to her home to harass her.

In 2010, Ms. Yang worked in a school as a substitute teacher. However, the police went to the school and threatened the principal, so she lost her job there, too.

When Ms. Yang got home at around 12:30 p.m. on May 26, 2013, Ye Lin, Bao Ming and several police officers from the Anning Domestic Security Division had broken into her home. They told her that she had been reported for distributing Shen Yun Performing Arts DVDs. They confiscated Falun Gong books and materials and arrested her. Her husband refused to sign the arrest warrant.

Ms. Yang's husband and friends went to see Ye Lin to get her released the next day but were told she had been taken to the Kunming City Detention Center. The director of the Kunming City 610 Office told them that they had all the evidence against her that they needed, including a witness and a video. They said they would present them to the defense lawyer but not to the family members.

On June 10, 2013, the Anning City Procuratorate approved the arrest.