(Minghui.org) A 66-year-old Hefei City, Anhui Province resident was detained for 19 days as she tried to seek justice for a previous prison term she had received for her faith in Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhai Yanan was arrested in October 2018 for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. She was tried through a virtual hearing on May 26, 2020. The judge sentenced her to 2.5 years in prison with a 3,000-yuan fine on August 24, 2020.
After she was released on April 8, 2021, Ms. Zhai filed a motion to reconsider her case with the Hefei City Intermediate Court on July 22. She also sent the motion through registered mail to the leadership of the court, as well officers of the Jinggang Police Station that arrested her, and the prosecutors and judges who handled her case.
In early September 2021, Ms. Zhai continued her effort by mailing her motion to the mayor of Hefei, Party Secretary of the city, secretary of Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and the head of Hefei City Police Department.
On September 10, four officers of the Yiminjie Police Station, as well as a few staff members from the residential committee and property management of her neighborhood, showed up at her home.
“You wrote a letter to the secretary of Hefei Political and Legal Affairs Committee. Now the secretary of the district Political and Legal Affairs Committee wants to talk to you,” the deputy chief of the police station said to her.
Ms. Zhai refused to comply and said that everything she wanted to say had been written in the letter. The officers insisted that she go with them. Although they had issued her a subpoena and Ms. Zhai had put it in a box at home, they secretly took it back after Ms. Zhai was arrested later in the day.
Ms. Zhai was held in a hotel for 19 days. Every day, the officers, who refused to reveal their identities, ordered her to write statements to renounce Falun Gong and stop mailing her motion. They said if she had to do it, she couldn’t mention anything about Falun Gong in her motion. Ms. Zhai insisted that she was exercising her constitutionally protected rights in practicing Falun Gong. She held a hunger strike for five days to protest the arbitrary arrest and detention. She was released on September 28.
Related report:
Anhui Woman Sentenced to Prison for Passing Out Materials about Her Faith
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
