(Minghui.org) While Ms. Zhang Qiaolei was secretly taken to prison to serve time for her faith in Falun Gong, her daughter and sister are facing trial for seeking justice for her.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang, a Tonghua County, Jilin Province resident, was arrested on February 27, 2020, for putting up informational posters about Falun Gong. Although she was released on bail the next day after paying a 3,000 yuan bond, the police took her back into custody on December 9.
Zhu Wenxi of the Tonghua County Domestic Security Office submitted Ms. Zhang’s case to the Tonghua County Procuratorate days later. The prosecutor Li Zongyuan approved her arrest on December 18.
In the weeks after Ms. Zhang’s second arrest, her daughter, Ms. Wang Meiqi, and her two older sisters, Ms. Zhang Qiaoyun and Ms. Zhang Qiaoxiu, went to various government agencies to seek her release, only to be humiliated and threatened.
When the three women went to the Tonghua County Police Station to pick up Ms. Zhang’s approval of arrest on December 21, at the request of police officer Zhu, the police arrested them under the pretext that they were “disrupting social order.”
Ms. Wang and Ms. Zhang Qiaoxiu were both given 15 days of detention and Ms. Zhang Qiaoyun was given 13 days of detention.
As Ms. Wang, a college senior, was scheduled to take the graduate school entrance exam between December 26 and 27, she had to request special permission to take the exams and then return to finish serving her detention term.
Her mother’s case was transferred to the Liuhe County Procuratorate on February 3 and prosecutor Lan Xing was assigned to handle the case.
When Ms. Zhang Qiaolei’s family called Jiang Meichen, a clerk of Liuhe County Court, on March 8, 2021, to inquire about her case, they were told that a hearing had been scheduled for March 16. Jiang refused to reveal more information and hung up the phone.
On the day of the hearing, judge Lu Xu lied to Ms. Zhang’s family that the hearing had been postponed, when in fact he secretly held the session at the same time.
Ms. Zhang was later sentenced to an unknown term. She has appealed with the Tonghua City Intermediate Court on April 15.
On the evening of April 19, her daughter was arrested again at her dorm at Jilin Normal University for her continued efforts to seek justice for her mother. Her two aunts were arrested as soon as they left home the next morning. The three of them were interrogated by officers from the Liuhe County Police Department about the details of their complaints against the relevant agencies in persecuting Ms. Zhang Qiaolei.
While Ms. Zhang Qiaoyun was released on the afternoon of April 20, Ms. Zhang Qiaoxiu and Ms. Wang has been kept in custody. Their arrests were approved by the Liuhe County Procuratorate on May 26. They are now facing trial by the Liuhe County Court after they were indicted.
Ms. Zhang Qiaolei was secretly transferred to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison between mid-August and September 2021. When her family called the prison to confirm whether she was there, the guards who answered the call either beat around the bush or didn’t answer the call at all.
Related reports:
Sisters and Daughter of Incarcerated Falun Gong Practitioner Twice Arrested for Seeking Her Release
Jilin Court Holds Secret Hearing for Falun Gong Practitioner, Blocks Her Daughter from Representing HerPolice Videotape Falun Gong Practitioner in Attempts to Frame Her
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