(Minghui.org) A Yantai City, Shandong Province resident who was receiving medical treatment was recently taken from a hospital to prison to serve a four-year term for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Yuan Yuqin, 60, was arrested on July 3, 2019 and taken to the Yantai Detention Center the same day. After her arrest was approved on August 10, her family hired a lawyer for her, only to have him blocked by the police from visiting her.
Ms. Yuan broke her wrist in detention in early November 2019. Her family and lawyer submitted an application requesting she be released for medical treatment. Xu Wenye and Guo Fudui of the Domestic Security Office went to the detention center to investigate. Upon hearing that Ms. Yuan had talked to her cellmates about Falun Gong, they rejected the family’s application.
Weeks later, the Longkou City Procuratorate returned Ms. Yuan’s case to the police for insufficient evidence. Xu and Guo collected more information about her and re-submitted the case, resulting in her indictment. Ms. Yuan was tried by the Longkou City Court through a video conference on June 18, 2020 and sentenced to four years.
After a year of detention, Ms. Yuan contracted tuberculosis and began coughing up blood. She vomited everything she ate and couldn’t hold any food down. Her body weight quickly dropped from over 150 lbs to 110 lbs. Fearful of her spreading tuberculosis to the other inmates, the detention center took her to a hospital for treatment. Yet the guards still handcuffed and shackled her to the hospital bed while she was receiving IV drips.
As her condition improved, Ms. Yuan returned home on bail. The police made several attempts to take her to the Shandong Province Women's Prison, which refused to admit her due to her tuberculosis.
While Ms. Yuan was receiving treatment in the hospital on October 22, 2021, police officer Guo Fudui forcibly took her to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison.
Past Persecution
Ms. Yuan took up Falun Gong in 1996. She credits the practice for enabling her to be more considerate and kind. For over ten years after her mother-in-law passed away, she took care of her ailing father-in-law, who needed a daily enema, when her husband was working out of town.
After the persecution started, she was arrested and detained several times for upholding her faith.
Ms. Yuan went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong in March 2000 and was arrested. She was held at the village office, shocked with electric batons and force-fed liquor and feces. The police also stripped her of her clothes and shoes and left her outdoors overnight.
Ms. Yuan was arrested two more times in 2001 and held at the Zhangjiagou Lockup. Her family had to pay the police 5,000 yuan in order to have her released to spend the Chinese New Year with them.
The Longkou City 610 Office, an extralegal agency created specifically to persecute Falun Gong, attempted to arrest Ms. Yuan at her workplace in 2002 for a brainwashing session. She escaped with the help of a colleague but couldn’t return to work anymore.
The police went to Ms. Yuan’s home at 6: 30 a.m. on October 30, 2008, in another attempt to arrest her. She escaped again and had to live away from home to hide from the police. Her bedridden father-in-law and school-aged child were left at home by themselves.
Several practitioners had their cellphones monitored by the police in 2012 for ordering customized CD cases with a printing company in Beijing. Under a directive from the Yantai City 610 Office and the Longkou City Domestic Security Office, the police arrested the monitored practitioners at 4 a.m. on April 11.
Several officers went to Ms. Yuan’s home at 5 a.m. that day, just two hours after her husband had returned home after working out-of-town for two months. When Ms. Yuan refused to open the door for the police, they climbed up to her balcony on the second floor and tried to pry open her window. Ms. Yuan demanded that they leave immediately, stating that it was illegal for them to break in.
During the ensuing standoff, several officers climbed in through the window. Upon entering, they opened the front door and let in another seven officers. Ms. Yuan still tried to stop them but they handcuffed her arms behind her back. Her husband also tried to stop the police but was unsuccesful.
With her octogenarian father-in-law, who had just been discharged from hospital a few days prior, trembling in fear, the police searched the home. They even broke into Ms. Yuan’s child’s room and confiscated a laptop used for school. Ms. Yuan’s father-in-law’s room was also searched. The 7,800 yuan cash he had set aside for medical expenses, as well as the cash in Ms. Yuan’s purse, her ID, cellphone, Falun Gong books and photo of Falun Gong’s founder, were all taken.
Ms. Yuan later escaped the police station and was forced to live away from home again.
She was arrested one more time and detained for ten days in September 2015 for filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former leader of the communist regime who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong.
Two plainclothes officers stopped Ms. Yuan in front of her garage in early 2016 and attempted to arrest her for providing shelter to displaced Falun Gong practitioners. Although she escaped, the police broke into her home on December 5, 2016 with a locksmith, and arrested her. Her Falun Gong books and a photo of Falun Gong’s founder were confiscated.
Wang Yucheng, deputy head of the Domestic Security Office, struck Ms. Yuan’s head and shoulders with a table tennis paddle and verbally abused her when she refused to answer his questions.
Ms. Yuan was dizzy after the beating. She shook uncontrollably and suffered heart palpitations. She lost consciousness at the Yantai Detention Center, and was later released on bail. The police constantly monitored her and her family's cellphones after she returned home.
Related Reports:
Police Threaten to Jail Ailing Woman for Her Faith
All articles, graphics, and content published on Minghui.org are copyrighted. Non-commercial reproduction is allowed but requires attribution with the article title and a link to the original article.
