(Minghui.org) An 85-year-old retired teacher in Yingkou City, Liaoning Province, stood trial on March 10, 2021, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Han Guiyun was arrested in a park on May 31, 2019. The police ransacked her home without her knowledge. After holding her in the local police station all day, they called her son to take her home at around 1 a.m. Ms. Han was taken back to the police station on June 18, 2019, and ordered to sign her bail release document.

During her trial in the Zhanqian District Court on March 10, 2021, Ms. Han testified in her own defense. She argued that there is no law in China that says practicing Falun Gong is a crime and that the Chinese publication bureau revoked the ban on publishing Falun Gong literature in 2011.

When the police took Ms. Han for a physical exam after the hearing, she had dangerously high blood pressure and vomited. The local detention center refused to accept her and she was released again.

One police officer and two people from the residential committee harassed her on March 12. They said that if she agreed to sign a statement promising not to practice Falun Gong anymore, they would give her a light term and she would still receive 60% of her pension. But if she refused to comply, they would suspend her entire pension. Ms. Han said she wouldn’t sign the statement and they left. It remains to be seen whether the authorities have suspended her pension for her upholding her faith.

Chinese version available

Category: Accounts of Persecution