(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Cuiying’s family was notified by the Shandong Province Women’s Prison in mid-August 2021 that she has been taken there earlier that month to serve a five-year term for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Not allowed to visit her, her family mailed several registered letters to her. The mail tracking system indicated that all letters were delivered and signed by someone in the prison.
The family received a letter from Ms. Wang in late November. The letter was dated October 26. The handwriting on the two pages was different from Ms. Wang’s and it was clear to the family that someone was imitating her handwriting. The letter included information on the bank account to which the family could make a cash deposit for Ms. Wang. The rest of the letter was praising the prison and the guards.
When Ms. Wang was allowed to call home in December, her family confirmed that she only received one letter they sent her and she also wrote several letters to them. But her loved ones never received her letters. As the guards didn’t allow Ms. Wang to talk about her situation in the prison, her family is worried about her and they are concerned as to why the prison withheld their correspondence and fabricated a letter to appear to be from her.
Ms. Wang, a 58-year-old resident in Heze City, Shandong Province, was arrested on March 7, 2019, while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. Another practitioner, Ms. Zhao Aizhen, was arrested on the same evening. Although they didn’t know each other, the police combined their cases and submitted it together to the procuratorate.
The two practitioners were tried by Juancheng County Court on January 15, 2020. The prosecutor listed more than 1,200 pieces of evidence against them, but only exhibited a few blurry photos of the “evidence,” without showing the actual items.
During their second hearing on March 12, 2021, the prosecutor presented over 1,000 pieces of evidence, claiming that the materials were produced by Ms. Zhao at Ms. Wang’s demand. He said he has Ms. Zhao’s confession to support the charge, but Ms. Zhao denied ever making the confession. She said she has presbyopia and it was very dark in the interrogation room. The police didn’t allow her to read the interrogation record carefully before forcing her to sign it.
Ms. Wang emphasized that she didn’t know Ms. Zhao before her arrest and the police and prosecutor were working hand in hand to frame them.
Ms. Wang’s family called the court on March 28 and was told that she has been sentenced to five years with a 20,000-yuan fine. Judge Fan refused to provide a copy of her verdict or any other details but only revealed that the verdict was issued on March 18. Ms. Zhao was sentenced to four and a half years with a 15,000-yuan fine.
Both women appealed with the Heze City Intermediate Court. While the judge ruled to uphold their original verdicts on May 21, he didn’t inform their lawyers until early June. They were taken to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison on August 9.
Ms. Wang took up Falun Gong in 1998. She was an accountant in a government agency and has been recognized several times as the best worker before she retired.
Prior to her latest sentence, she was given two years of forced labor in 2012 for her faith. Her workplace removed her title as a director and withheld her salary during the term because she refused to renounce Falun Gong.
Related report:
Shandong Woman Sentenced to Five Years Over Fabricated Evidence
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