Three Women Detained for 18 Months for Practicing Falun Gong, Now Sentenced to Over Three Years

(Minghui.org) Three women in Fujian Province were illegally arrested on May 22, 2013, and detained for 18 months before given a trial. The judge sentenced each of them to over three years in prison their belief in Falun Gong. They were being held in the First Detention Center in the city of Xiamen at the time of this report.

The women were first tried in Mingsi District Court in Xiamen on March 4, 2014. Their lawyers pleaded not guilty for them and no verdict came from that trial. The second trial was scheduled for March 10, but it never took place. On January 6, 2015 the court held a second trial for all three and sentenced Ms. Zhu to three years and two months; Ms. Guo to three years and three months; and Ms. Li to three years and four months.

The Unlawful Arrest of Ms. Zhu Fengling (朱凤灵)

While Ms. Zhu and her family were asleep at 6 a.m. on May 22, 2013, a loud banging on the door awoke her husband, Mr. Liu Jinjie. A woman stood outside of his security door, shouting for help with a water leak. As soon as Mr. Liu opened the door, a man came out from behind her and pushed Mr. Liu inside. About a dozen men rushed into his apartment. None of them identified themselves. They appeared to be plainclothes officers and one of them wore white gloves.

A man waved a piece of paper too fast for Mr. Liu to see what it was and said, “You know what we are doing here. Cooperate, or else.” Two men grabbed Mr. Liu and forced him to sit on his couch. They demanded to see his hands on his lap. Mr. Liu stated that he wasn't a criminal and refused to cooperate. The men threatened him.

Two officers woke up Ms. Zhu brought her to the living room. Mr. Liu and Ms. Zhu were forced to hand in their cell phones before the men began to search the apartment. They took out all the laptops, computers, printers, tablets, Falun Dafa DVDs and books and scattered them on the floor. One of the men filmed the entire process. He ordered Mr. Liu to point at the things on the floor and state that they were his. Mr. Liu refused. The men threatened him repeatedly.

Chen Guishen (陈桂顺) from Lianqian Police Station pushed Mr. Liu down and forced him to take the photo. They also coerced Ms. Zhu into taking a photo with the items on the floor.

The men made a list of the items on the floor and ordered Mr. Liu to sign. They were apparently planning to confiscate and use these items as evidence against Ms. Zhu. Mr. Liu refused. The men threatened to confiscate everything whether he signed or not. They eventually forced Ms. Zhu to sign the list.

On the same day, Ms. Li Huiying (李回英) and Ms. Guo Fengjie (郭凤杰) were arrested and their homes were ransacked. All three of them were locked up in the First Detention Center in Xiamen.

The prosecutors of this case were Gao Yanghong (高仰红) and Liu Yuantian (刘远添) from Mingsi District Procuratorate. The head judge from Mingsi Court was Zhang Jinqian (张绵前) and the acting judge was Fang Jinye (方晋晔, [phone]).

Yi (first name unknown, 易主任), director of Xiamen City Domestic Security Division, [phone]Mingsi District Domestic Security Division, [phone]Lin (first name unknown, 林警官), officer, [phone]He Guangping (何光平), deputy captain who was in charge of the arrests of the three practitionersChen Guishun (陈桂顺), officer from Lianqian Police Station (莲前派出所), [phone]