(Minghui.org) A woman Lingwu City, Ningxia Autonomous Region, serving two years for practicing Falun Gong was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, liver cysts, and gallstones.
The Wuzhong City Detention Center dispatched guards to closely monitor Ms. Yan Ying, who was being treated in the Wuzhong City Hospital. Only one family member was allowed to accompany her.
Wuzhong City is about 14 miles away from Lingwu City.
As a result of strong protest from her family and lawyer, the detention center finally agreed to grant Ms. Yan medical parole and the guards have left the hospital. She had a mastectomy and is still in the hospital. Her family is now with her.
Ms. Yan, 58, contracted an undiagnosed disease after giving birth in 1989. Her hands would go numb whenever she touched cold water and she would have spasms or even seizures afterward. She developed many more health problems later on, including Rheumatic heart disease, gastritis, adnexitis (inflammation of the fallopian tubes and of the ovaries), abdominal cavity inflammation, allergic rhinitis, and trigeminal neuralgia (pain from the trigeminal nerve in the face). Three months after she began practicing Falun Gong, however, all her symptoms disappeared.
While her disability as a result of childhood polio remains, Ms. Yan was able to live a normal life without other medical problems. However, after the persecution of Falun Gong began, she was targeted for upholding her faith.
Ms. Yan lives in a multi-story house, with the downstairs storefront used by her daughter-in-law to run a photography and photocopying business. On February 10, 2021, more than a dozen officers from Lingwu City broke into the storefront and found Ms. Yan there. They questioned her about how many copies of Falun Gong materials she had provided to other local practitioners before. They spent four hours searching the storefront as well as the living quarter upstairs. Her daughter-in-law’s computer and printing equipment were all confiscated, temporarily shutting down the business.
The next day, Li Haitao, chief of the Gaozha Police Station in Wuzhong City, led a group of officers to harass and intimidate Ms. Yan and her daughter-in-law. They arrested Ms. Yang and took her to the Gaozha Police Station.
On February 22, Ms. Yan was taken to the Wuzhong City Hospital for a physical. The doctor warned the police that she had symptoms of a medical condition and shouldn’t be detained, but they still took her to the Wuzhong City Detention Center early in the morning of February 23. They grabbed her hand and forced her to fill out several physical examination forms. The detention center guards later told her that they were aware of her medical condition and that she had to cover the medical expenses herself.
During the three days between February 21 and 23 when Ms. Yan was interrogated at the police station, the police didn’t provide her with any food. When she asked them to buy food with her own money, an officer said, “It would be fine for Falun Gong practitioners to starve.”
The police later submitted the cases against Ms. Yan and three other Wuzhong City practitioners to the Litong District Procuratorate in Wuzhong. The four practitioners were indicted on March 27 and stood trial in the Litong District Court on August 5.
Ms. Yan was sentenced to two years with a 5,000-yuan fine on September 14. Of the other three practitioners, Mr. Ma Xiongde and his wife Ms. Zheng Fengying were sentenced to 1.5 years with a 5,000-yuan fine; and Ms. Zheng Yarong was given one year and six months, with a two-year probation and a 5,000-yuan fine.
Ms. Yan, Mr. Ma, and Ms. Zheng Fengying appealed the verdicts, but they haven’t yet received a response from the higher court at the time of writing.
Ms. Yan developed breast cancer, liver cysts, and gallstones after nine months of incarceration at the Wuzhong City Detention Center.
Related reports:
Four Ningxia Residents Sentenced for Their Faith
Four Ningxia Residents Tried for Their Faith
Four Ningxia Residents Face Prosecution for Practicing Falun Gong
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