(Minghui.org) Ms. Xiao Yuxia, a 60-year-old resident of Kunming City, Yunnan Province, began practicing Falun Gong in 1997 after she witnessed the positive changes in her husband, Mr. Tang Wenxiang. Her health soon improved. She no longer had a bad temper and her relationship with her mother-in-law and sisters-in-law became harmonious.
Because Ms. Xiao and Mr. Tang remained firm in their faith after the Chinese communist regime ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, they were repeatedly arrested and detained. Ms. Xiao served a three-year labor camp and two prison terms totaling nine years. She was forced to close her beauty salon after she was sentenced to five years in 2012, which caused a huge financial loss to her family. She was later given another prison term (four years) following her arrest in 2019. The authorities continued to harass her after she was released in September 2023.
Below are the details of her latest arrest and second prison sentence.
Latest Arrest
Eight plainclothes officers broke into Ms. Xiao’s home at 9 a.m. on September 6, 2019, when only she and her two nieces were at home.
Two officer restrained Ms. Xiao on the sofa while the rest of them searched her home. They put her Falun Gong books, portrait of Falun Gong’s founder, tablet computer and other Falun Gong materials on the living room floor, before ordering her to point to the items and have her picture taken. She refused to comply.
The police took Ms. Xiao to her two other residences, including one that was occupied by her daughter and a rental property. Her daughter wasn’t there when the police came. They entered the home with the key they took from Ms. Xiao. They looked around and left. At the other residence, the police knocked on the door but left when no one answered.
Ms. Xiao was taken to the Juhua Police Station and interrogated by an officer from the Guandu District Police Department. She did not answer any questions.
The police returned to Ms. Xiao’s home around 1 p.m. and arrested her husband. They took him to three different hospitals, which all diagnosed him with some medical conditions and deemed him unfit for detention. The police, however, still forced the Guandu District Detention Center to admit him the next day (September 7). As soon as he was admitted, the detention center sent him to the police-affiliated Guandu District Hospital, where he was held for ten days before being released on bail on September 30, 2019.
Ms. Xiao was taken to the Kunming City Detention Center on September 7, 2019. She was forced to share a giant bed with 24 other inmates in the transitional cell for newly admitted inmates. It was so crowded that no one could move when they slept. If anyone got up to use the restroom, they would lose their space.
During the first seven days there, Ms. Xiao was interrogated by guard Zhu Yun every day, while being restrained in a tiger bench. After over 20 days in the transitional cell, she was transferred to the No. 6 Cell shared by over 20 inmates. Guards Zhu Yun, Yang Juan and Xiao (first name unknown) were in charge of the cell.
Sentenced to Four Years
The Wuhua District Procuratorate approved Ms. Xiao’s arrest on September 30, 2019. Prosecutors Zhao Xingyue and Hao Yida indicted her in November 2019. The Wuhua District Court scheduled a hearing of her case for January 2020, but postponed it until November 18, 2020 due to COVID-19 outbreak.
The day of the hearing, Ms. Xiao was ordered to get up at 6 a.m., one hour earlier than usual. The guards handcuffed and shackled her, before putting her in a coverall. She was taken to the court in a convoy of three police cars.
Ms. Xiao’s husband and daughter were the only two people from her family granted permission to attend her hearing. The presiding judge, Qin Xiaoying, however, removed them from the court room not long after the hearing started, with the excuse that they were listed as prosecution witnesses to Ms. Xiao’s case.
Ms. Xiao’s lawyer entered a not guilty plea for her. She also testified in her own defense. She said that when the police broke into her home to arrest her, none of them wore police uniforms or presented their IDs or a search warrant. Her lawyer added that it was a serious violation of legal procedure for the police to trespass on a private residence and search the place without proper documents.
During the evidence cross-examination stage, Ms. Xiao’s lawyer demanded to see documents authenticating the prosecution evidence against her. But judge Qin rejected his request, with the excuse that the documents were confidential. The lawyer requested to know the legal basis for classifying the documents as “confidential,” but Qing ignored him. In protest of the blatant violation of law, the lawyer quit representing Ms. Xiao in court and the hearing was adjourned.
Ms. Xiao was taken to a hospital for a COVID-19 test and brought back to a small room in the courthouse. Judge Qin attempted to appoint a lawyer for her, but Ms. Xiao insisted on being represented by her own lawyer. Qin did not answer her directly but asked her to testify in her own defense. She said she also needed her own lawyer to represent her. Qin relented and had her sign a statement saying she would still be represented by her own lawyer.
After waiting for an entire afternoon, Ms. Xiao was taken back to the courtroom at 6:30 p.m. In addition to the several bailiffs standing behind her, there were only six people present, including presiding judge Qin, two assisting judges Wei Kun and Zhang Li, court clerk Xu Jinlin, and prosecutors Zhao and Hao. Her lawyer was nowhere to be seen. It is unclear whether her lawyer was never notified of the continuation of the hearing or he was still protesting Qin’s violation of legal procedures.
Judge Qin previously told Ms. Xiao’s family that she intended to continue the hearing in the afternoon, but she didn’t provide the time or answer their phone calls. The family later left. They were not told the hearing would resume at 6:30 p.m.
As soon as Ms. Xiao said, “Falun Dafa is good,” judge Qin adjourned the hearing again. It was already 8:30 p.m. when Ms. Xiao was taken back to the detention center.
The judge sentenced Ms. Xiao to four years and fined her 6,000 yuan on November 23, 2020. She appealed to the Kunming City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold the original verdict on February 8, 2021. Presiding judge Fan Li, assistant judges Zhao Yong and Zhao Junwen, and court clerk Zou Ye of the appeals court signed the decision.
Tortured at Yunnan Province Second Women’s Prison
Ms. Xiao was taken to the Yunnan Province Second Women’s Prison on March 27, 2021. She was first put on a 15-day quarantine at the Eighth Ward. The head guard, Ran Tao, ordered her to write a statement to plead guilty. She refused to comply.
Fifteen days later, Ms. Xiao was transferred to Team Three in the Ninth Ward. Guard Liu Ting assigned inmates Luo Shuangping and Wang Ping to monitor her. She was also put on Class I Strict Management, which only allowed four restroom breaks a day. When she protested the restriction by not attending the drill exercises, the inmates verbally abused her, but the guards approved a few more restroom breaks for the next month. Guard Chen Naping took over one month later and reversed Ms. Xiao’s restroom breaks to four times per day.
After the initial strict management, Ms. Xiao’s daily schedule was the following: She had to get up at 5:40 a.m. and wash herself. Then she sat on a small stool motionless until 10 p.m. She was still given four restroom breaks, including one after getting up, one at 10:30 a.m., one at 4 p.m. and one before she went to bed. She was only given four cups of water to drink every day. The restrictions caused her to have severe constipation. At night, she also had to cover a 1.5-hour security shift while seated. She was not allowed to stand up or stretch her body.
Every week, she was given five minutes to take a shower and wash her underwear. Oftentimes, as soon as she put soap on herself, the inmate on duty said time was up and turned off the water. She was only allowed to wash her face and brush her teeth in a basin in her cell, on a daily basis.
Every two months, she could apply to wash her bedding, but on the condition that she plead guilty and admit she was a criminal. It’s not clear whether she did this.
Another restriction was the 100-yuan cap on her monthly purchase of daily necessities. In Ms. Xiao’s first month in the prison, guard Liu Ting arbitrarily reduced her spending cap to 37 yuan, which was not even enough money to buy toilet paper.
Most practitioners on strict management are not granted family visits or allowed to call their families. But occasionally, the prison allows the families to visit, on the condition that they help the guards “work on” the practitioners.
In addition to the physical abuse, Ms. Xiao was also forced to do labor by making beaded thread. If she couldn’t finish the daily quota, she was punished and made to clean the restroom.
In April 2023, six months before Ms. Xiao’s prison release, the guards launched another transformation campaign of her. She wasn’t only forced to sit on a small stool for long hours every day, but was also forced to watch propaganda videos smearing Falun Gong for seven hours. Guard Liu Ting also forced her family to videotape her grandchildren in an attempt to use her affection for the kids to shake her will.
When Ms. Xiao was released on September 6, 2023, both the police and her family waited outside of the prison. The police attempted to take her to the police station to do some paperwork but relented when Ms. Xiao firmly refused.
Harassment After Prison Release
One week after Ms. Xiao was released, officers from the Juhua Police Station called her daughter and asked what Ms. Xiao had been doing at home. Staffers from Wujing Street Committee and Wuli Residential Committee also harassed Ms. Xiao at home for two more weeks.
Related reports:
“Strict Discipline” of Falun Gong Practitioners in Yunnan No. 2 Women’s Prison
Kunming City, Yunnan Province: Eight Falun Gong Practitioners Sentenced to Prison
Seven Yunnan Residents Tried for Their Faith
Falun Gong Practitioners Suffer Persecution; Their Families Stand Up for Them
Kunming Police Ransack the Homes of Ms. Luo Lizhi and Ms. Xiao Yuxia
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