Woman, Nearly 70, Sentenced for Seeking Justice Over Her Husband’s Reduced Pension

(Minghui.org) Judicial officials called Ms. Jiang Deyuan on December 22, 2021, and told her to come to the courthouse to pick up her verdict at 3 that afternoon. Shortly after she arrived, several officers carried her out, pushed into a police car, and took her away. Her husband was given a copy of her verdict—one year and three months in prison with a 10,000-yuan fine. He wasn’t told where she was to serve her time.

Ms. Jiang of Huili City, Sichuan Province, was targeted for seeking justice for her husband, whose pension has been reduced for their shared faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

When Ms. Jiang’s husband, Mr. Zhang Zhengyou, went to pick up his pension in June 2020, he was surprised to see it was less than usual. He called his former employer and was told that, because he was given a year and a half of forced labor for practicing Falun Gong in 2012, the police in March 2020 ordered his employer to deduct the amount he had received during his incarceration from his pension.

The police claimed that, according to a new policy, Falun Gong practitioners serving time aren’t entitled to any retirement benefits during their terms. Because Mr. Zhang’s employer didn’t suspend his pension back then, they were now reducing his monthly payment to recoup the funds.

Both Mr. Zhang and his wife insisted that he was given the forced labor term because of the illegal persecution and that his pension was his lawful asset, not something the government can arbitrarily suspend. Both of them went several times to Mr. Zhang’s employer, urging them to issue his full pension payment. His supervisor refused to do so and even intimidated them.

Ms. Jiang wrote a letter to the appeals office, detailing how Mr. Zhang recovered from his poor health by practicing Falun Gong and how he had suffered during the persecution. When she went to the office on October 12, 2020, to deliver the letter, the receptionist refused to accept it.

Ms. Jiang then submitted the letter to the local residential committee and the police station. The police arrested her and held her in the police station until 7 p.m. During her time there, the police didn’t let her use the restroom and handcuffed her so tightly that her wrists were badly bruised.

Police chief Su Jian later worked with prosecutors Pan Liping and Huang Zhengping of the Huili City Procuratorate to indict Ms. Jiang. She filed complaints against them but to no avail.

The judge in charge of Ms. Jiang’s case arbitrarily rescheduled the hearing several times, including one time when her lawyer had already traveled about 1,500 miles from Beijing to Huili. She eventually made two appearances in Huili City Court, on May 19 and December 13, 2021.

When Ms. Jiang’s lawyer was unable to attend her second hearing due to a schedule conflict, the judge appointed another lawyer to enter a guilty plea for Ms. Jiang without her knowledge.

In the verdict her husband received on December 22, the government officials she contacted to seek justice for him were listed as the witnesses to her crime of promoting Falun Gong. The appeal letters that mentioned Falun Gong and the Falun Gong books confiscated from her were also listed as prosecution evidence.

Perpetrators’ contact information:Yang Jilan (杨继兰), presiding judge of Huili City Court: [phone]Pan Liping (潘利平), vice president of Huili City Procuratorate: [phone], [phone]Huang Zhengping (黄正萍), prosecutor, Huili City Procuratorate

(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)

Related report:

Sichuan Woman Tried for Seeking Justice Over Her Husband’s Reduced Pension for Practicing Falun Gong