(Minghui.org) Ms. Li Yanqun was sentenced to seven years and fined 7,000 yuan in October 2020. Her verdict stated that the 6,200 yuan confiscated from her during her arrest was to be used to cover most of the fine. Her family, however, received a notice this February asking them to pay the full amount on her behalf. They refused to comply.

Ms. Li, a 66-year-old Foshan City, Guangdong Province resident, was targeted for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Li was arrested at home on March 17, 2020. When her daughter went to visit her the next day, she was shocked to see that her mother’s door had police tape on it. She used her spare key to get in and found the place in shambles.

While searching for her mother, Ms. Li’s daughter was referred to two local police stations and two local detention centers, none of which revealed her mother’s exact detention location.

It took her daughter two months to find out that she has been detained in the Foshan City No.3 People’s Hospital, a local psychiatric hospital.

Ms. Li was taken from the mental hospital to the Chancheng District Detention Center to attend a virtual hearing by the Chancheng District Court on August 5, 2020, and was held at the detention center afterwards.

The authorities continued to block her lawyer or daughter from visiting her, citing the pandemic as an excuse.

The judge informed Ms. Li’s lawyer on October 21, 2020, that she was sentenced to seven years with a 7,000 yuan fine. Her daughter never received any official notifications about her case, not from the police, the Procuratorate, or the court, except for one message and one phone call demanding the payment of the fine.

When Ms. Li’s daughter later received the verdict, she found it said that the 6,200 yuan confiscated from her during her arrest would be used to pay for part of the court fine, which means she only had to pay an additional 800 yuan. But on February 8, 2021, the court contacted Ms. Li’s daughter again and urged her to pay the entire 7,000 yuan. She refused to pay it.

As Ms. Li didn’t have a pension and she relied on the 300 yuan her daughter gave her every month to get by, her daughter now found the authorities have frozen Ms. Li’s bank account and is set to withhold 200 yuan from her every month, until the 7,000 yuan fine is paid off.

It’s reported that Ms. Li is suffering from a medical condition in Guangdong Province Women’s Prison. Her daughter is very worried about her. She is calling on the international community to pay more attention to her case and help rescue her.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Yang Huandui (杨焕堆), judge in charge of Ms. Li’s case
Zheng Youjin (郑友津), court clerk: +86-757-82915347Zeng Qiang (曾强), head of the Domestic Security Division: +86-13923111114Chen Xiaojian (陈小坚), head of Foshan City Police Department: +86-18707661133Li Rongxin (李荣新), deputy secretary of Political and Legal Affairs Committee: +86-18022237986

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related reports:

After a Seven-year Prison Sentence, Guangdong Woman’s Whereabouts Still Unknown

65-year-old Woman Secretly Arrested, Detained in a Psychiatric Hospital and Then Sentenced to 7 Years for Her Faith

Detained in Psychiatric Hospital After Her Arrest, Guangdong Woman Tried for Her Faith

Sixty-Five-Year-Old Woman Detained in Mental Hospital, Faces Trial for Her Faith

Guangdong Woman Detained for More Than a Month, Family Still Not Told Her Exact Location

Ms. Li Yanqun Illegally Imprisoned in the Gaoming District Detention Center of Foshan City

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution