After 9 Months of Detention, Woman Tried for Her Spiritual Belief

(Minghui.org) Ms. Wen Ling from Chenzhou, Hunan Province was tried for refusing to give up her belief in Falun Gong on March 24, 2016, in the Beihu District Court.

Her family members who attended the trial said that they were subjected to a strict security check and had to hand over their IDs before they were allowed to enter the courtroom.

After roughly 10 minutes, Ms. Wen experienced chest pain and difficulty breathing. She started to convulse and fell down. Court officials ignored her until her husband protested and said the court would be held accountable for her well-being. The judge adjourned the trial and called for an ambulance. Several bailiffs followed her to the hospital.

After she was treated for nearly three hours in the emergency room, with security personnel flanking the hallway, the bailiffs drove her back to Chenzhou No.1 Detention Center, where she had been detained for nine months.

Arrested While Renewing Travel Permit, Force Fed During Detention

Ms. Wen was arrested on July 6, 2015, when she went to renew her travel permit to Hong Kong at the entry-exit office. Her family members noted that she had been blacklisted by the authorities.

Ms. Wen was then detained in the Chenzhou No.1 Detention Center. When she started a hunger strike to protest the detention, she was force fed and injured.

She was transferred to the Beihu District Brainwashing Center on July 24 and held for 27 days. Both her husband and daughter were interrogated by the police during that time.

Ms. Wen’s family has not been allowed to visit her since her arrest last July. Her family suspects that torture led to her chest pain during the trial on March 24.

During her nine months in detention, the police twice submitted her case to the Procuratorate, which rejected it both times, citing insufficient evidence.

Ms. Wen's family believes that the 610 Office and the Political and Legal Affairs Committee pressured the Procuratorate to accept Ms. Wen's case when the police submitted it for a third time.

Repeatedly Targeted for Her Spiritual Belief During the Past 17 Years

Ms. Wen, a manager at a clothing factory, started to practice Falun Gong in 1996 and experienced tremendous improvement both physically and mentally. Friends and acquaintances noticed that she was calmer and more considerate. Unable to become pregnant for more than 10 years, she soon gave birth to a baby boy and later a girl.

When the communist regime started to persecute Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Wen was repeatedly arrested and harassed for not giving up the practice.

The police once threatened to hold her one-month-old baby girl hostage in order to arrest her.

Ms. Wen escaped from the police station in 2009 after she was arrested for distributing materials exposing the persecution of Falun Gong. The police put her on a wanted list and offered a 5,000-yuan reward for reporting her.

Ms. Wen was arrested again in 2011 at a gathering with other Falun Gong practitioners. The police and 610 Office staff searched each practitioner, confiscated their personal belongings, and ransacked their meeting place – the home of a practitioner couple.

The police collected information on the practitioners' health and blood samples, and interrogated them overnight at the police station. One officer hit Ms. Wen in the head with a heavy object.

Most of the practitioners were transferred to a detention center the next day and detained in a very small room open to the outside.

Ms. Wen went on a hunger strike for eight days and was later released.

The police attempted to arrest Ms. Wen again in 2014. They cut off the electricity to her home and broke in. They ransacked her home and confiscated her computers and other equipment, worth more than a hundred thousand yuan.

Ms. Wen escaped arrest because she was not home at the time.

Perpetrators' Contact Information:
Beihu District Police Department: [phone]Political and Legal Affairs Committee: [phone] Office: [phone]Bian Lichuan (卞力川), head of Domestic Security Division: [phone], [phone]Ouyang Guangjun (欧阳光军), president of Beihu District Court: [phone], [phone]Xu Xianglong (徐湘龙), head of Beihu District Procuratorate: [phone], [phone]

Related article in Chinese: http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2013/10/18/服装厂科长做好人反遭中共拘留迫害-281301.html