Woman Given 4.5 Years for Her Faith, Denied Admission by Detention Center Due to Poor Health

(Minghui.org) An ailing 62-year-old woman sentenced to 4.5 years for her faith in Falun Gong has been released after she was rejected admission by the local detention center for her poor health. 

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Sun Yanhuan, a Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province resident, was first arrested on November 8, 2016. She developed burning chest pain and a low-grade fever after months of detention. 

As her condition kept worsening after she was sentenced to three years by the Dongfeng District Court on October 18, 2017, the local detention center and Jiamusi Intermediate Court decided to change her verdict to five years' suspended sentence on November 27, 2017.

Not long after Ms. Sun returned home, she became paralyzed and had heart surgery.

The police returned on July 31, 2019, and confiscated her Falun Gong books, a photo of Falun Gong’s founder, and paintings that featured Falun Gong. They attempted to take her back into custody, but she was denied admission again as she was still very weak. The police released her on bail with a one-year limit and designated her younger brother as her guarantor.

Meanwhile, the intermediate court revoked Ms. Sun’s suspended sentence and reinstated her original three-year sentence on October 11, 2019. She was ordered to serve time from October 11, 2019, to July 16, 2021.

Ms. Sun was taken back to the detention center on the day of the ruling, only to be turned down for admission due to her high blood pressure. 

She was taken to the Xiangyang District Procuratorate on August 7, 2020, and told that the police were starting a new case against her, because she had committed another “crime” — possession of Falun Gong books. The police added that her not cooperating with the authorities during her suspended sentence was also part of her “new crime.”

Ms. Sun was tried by the Xiangyang District Court on October 27, 2020. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea for her and she also testified in her own defense. 

Ms. Sun received a call from judge Ji Zhong on December 29 and was asked to come to the court the next morning. When she went there at around 8:20 a.m. on December 30, the judge handed her a verdict designating a 4.5-year prison sentence with a 15,000-yuan fine. She was expected to be imprisoned from December 30, 2020 to April 3, 2023, after the 14 months and 26 days she served between 2016 and 2017 at Jiamusi Detention Center was deducted.

While signing the verdict, Ms. Sun also indicated that she had objections and would appeal it. 

The bailiff next took her to do a coronavirus test and a physical examination. She was found to have high blood pressure and symptoms of myocardial infarction. The doctor skipped the chest examination, which had indicated problems before.

After receiving her examination results later that day, the bailiff took Ms. Sun to the Jiamusi Detention Center. It happened that the same guard who took Ms. Sun to the hospital during her detention in 2017 was also there. The guard described to the detention center doctor Ms. Sun’s condition in 2017. And after the doctor confirmed Ms. Sun’s high blood pressure, the detention center director refused to accept her. She was then released. 

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