(Minghui.org) Ms. An Shunlian, 76 from Kunming City, Yunnan Province, was sentenced to three and a half years and fined 10,000 yuan on December 16, 2024, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual dsicipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. An was arrested on August 10, 2023 and released on one-year house arrest the next morning. The Xishan District Procuratorate indicted her on March 20, 2024. The Xishan District Court scheduled three court dates for April 10, July 2, and December 4, but she attended none of them as she felt she should not be prosecuted for being a law-abiding citizen.
Two officers from the Zongshuying Police Station, surnamed Yu and Wang, went to Ms. An’s home at 1 p.m. on December 10, 2024. She asked if they were there to take her to the courthouse. They said no and called her son, saying, “We’re taking your mother to the hospital for a physical examination and will bring her home before 6 p.m. tonight.”
After Ms. An got into the police cruiser, she saw officer Luo Xiudong, who was in charge of her case, and a plainclothes agent. They drove her straight to the Xishan District Court. Two clerks were waiting for her to sign a notice, which stated that she was to face judge on December 16. She refused to sign anything and the clerks left the notice in the police cruiser.
Around 3 p.m., officer Luo produced an arrest warrant issued by the Xishan District Court and formally took Ms. An into custody. After processing her case at the police department, he drove her to the hospital for a physical examination just after 7 p.m.
Ms. An was not told about the exam results and was instead taken to the Kunming City Detention Center. The doctor there recommended further medical examination. The police then took her back to the hospital for more checkups. She was found to have some eye problems that needed a more comprehensive examination. The detention center declined to admit her and the police held her at the police department overnight.
At 10 a.m. the next morning (December 11), officer Luo and two others took Ms. An to the hospital for the third time. The eye doctor there diagnosed her with macular degeneration and inflammation in both eyes. He said she was already legally blind in her right eye and her left eye had a 20/100 vision. Despite this, the police still took Ms. An to the detention center, which again refused to admit her.
On the way back to the police department, Luo said that the court issued an arrest warrant to ensure Ms. An’s attendance at her scheduled December 16 hearing. He had to send her home now because the detention center refused to take her. However, he warned her that the court was likely to sentence her to jail and that the prison, unlike the detention center, must admit her once she was convicted.
Ms. An stood trial on the morning of December 16, 2024. Judge Ping Kunquan sentenced her that afternoon. She is now appealing the wrongful conviction.
Prior to the latest persecution episode, she was previously given two years of forced labor in 2007, sentenced to one year with two years probation in 2007, and received two years with two years probation in 2020. Her husband, Mr. Yang Nengwen, 83, was also repeatedly arrested for practicing Falun Gong. He was sentenced to six months with one year probation following an arrest in 2016.
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