(Minghui.org) A woman in Dalian City, who was arrested almost a year ago for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime, was recently sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Ms. Zhang Jing’s parents, who haven’t been allowed to see her since her arrest, received a phone call on May 11, 2017, saying that she had been sentenced to 8 years and had asked to have a lawyer to appeal her case.
The elderly couple was stunned, because no one had ever told them when their daughter was indicted or tried.
The local police and the court claimed to know nothing about the sentencing. Ms. Zhang’s parents visited the local detention center and were told their daughter was still being held there.
As Ms. Zhang remains incarcerated, her parents are working to figure out if she was indeed sentenced or whether the police and the court are trying to conceal something from them so as to prevent them from filing an appeal.
Ms. Zhang was arrested as she stepped out of her apartment building on the morning of June 28, 2016. According to eyewitnesses, the police knocked her down and cuffed her hands behind her back.
An officer from Sanshilipu Town Police Station called Ms. Zhang’s parents later that day to tell them to pick up certain items confiscated from their daughter’s home. A few days later the police told the couple to deposit money for her at Yaojia Detention Center.
Ms. Zhang’s parents have never been allowed to visit her.
Her mother visited the police station numerous times to seek her release and was always told that higher-ups had ordered the arrest. Officer Zhou Tong, who was in charge of the case, revealed that the police had been monitoring Ms. Zhang for six months before making the arrest.