(Minghui.org) A Fushun City, Liaoning Province resident was recently sentenced to 3.5 years for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Wang Jiemei, a 60-year-old retired teacher, used to suffer severe cholecystitis and insomnia. As her husband also struggled with poor health, most of the house chores fell on her shoulders, leaving her constantly in a bad temper and easily irritated. Shortly after she took up Falun Gong, she regained her health. She was filled with energy and her mind was broadened.
After the coronavirus broke out in China, Ms. Wang felt compelled to share the healing power of Falun Gong to the public so that more people could benefit from it. For talking to people about Falun Gong in the nearby Shenyang City, she was reported on February 21, 2021, and arrested by officers of the Gaokan Police Station in Shenyang.
The police later turned her case to Hunnan District Domestic Security Office in Shenyang City. The Economic and Technological Development Zone Procuratorate in Shenyang approved her arrest on March 26, 2021, and indicted her on June 18.
After nearly nine months at the Shenyang City No.1 Detention Center, Ms. Wang was tried by the Economic and Technological Development Zone Court at the detention center on October 11.
Prior to the hearing, the detention center demanded that her lawyer and family defender submit their travel history within the past 30 days, as well as support letters from their workplaces or residential committees to verify the travel history. As the lawyer had travelled out of town for other hearings, he was also required to submit a negative molecular test of the coronavirus.
The hearing took place in a 100-square-foot visitation room with two rows of seats. Except for court clerk Duan Kexin, who sat in a chair to type the court proceedings, the presiding judge, Yang Song, a juror and a bailiff all stood during the hearing. Another two judges could only stand in the hallway. The prosecutors, Hou Yu and Wei Xiaoxue, shared a chair and took turns sitting down. And the lawyer and Ms. Wang’s family defender shared another chair. Ms. Wang remained seated behind a metal fence. Her family was barred from attending the hearing, as they were unable to get a supporting letter from the community office.
Ms. Wang’s lawyer entered a not guilty plea for her. He said that it was unacceptable for the police to arrest her and detain her for over half a year only because she had said a few words to others. As the prosecutor charged her with the standard pretext of “undermining law enforcement,” the lawyer asked how Ms. Wang allegedly undermined enforcement of the law and what law’s enforcement was undermined.
The lawyer added that the police violated legal procedures while handling her case, including ransacking her home without a search warrant and putting down the wrong date of the arrest. The Gaokan Police Station in Shenyang had requested the Gaowan Police Station in Fushun to help search Ms. Wang’s home, but such a request had to come from the local police department, instead of between local police stations themselves. This rendered the home-ransacking of Ms. Wang invalid, and the Falun Gong-related materials confiscated from her home should not have been admitted as prosecution evidence in the first place, the lawyer said.
The lawyer also asked the judge to summon the witness to appear in court and the prosecutor to exhibit the prosecution evidence for cross-examination.
The lawyer said in his closing statement, “For an elderly woman, she told strangers about Falun Gong and wished them to be safe, despite the cold weather and the pandemic. It completely came from her compassion and kindness. If you don’t believe what she says, at least you need to respect her. Even if you don’t respect her, you can just walk away. Why do you have to arrest her and detain her for such a long time?”
After the hearing, Ms. Wang’s family also tried to urge the judges not to take part in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. The judges didn’t listen and recently sentenced Ms. Wang to 3.5 years with a 10,000-yuan fine.
The lawyer has filed several complaints against the police for raiding Ms. Wang’s home, interrogating her and arbitrarily detaining her.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Yang Song (杨松), judge of Economic and Technological Development Zone Court: +86-24-85819910Hou Yu (侯煜), prosecutor of Economic and Technological Development Zone Procuratorate: +86-24-25182813Zhang Zhenxing (张振兴), instructor of Hunnan District Domestic Security Office: +86-13940474843Xu Tao (许涛), head of Gao Kan Police Station: +86-24-24781493
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Related article in Chinese:
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