Family Seeks to Overturn Wrongful Prison Sentence Against Elderly Woman

(Minghui.org) When Ms. Zhou Xiuhua’s family learned on January 26, 2022 that the Wuhan City, Hubei Province resident had been sentenced to six years for practicing Falun Gong, they were so angry that they couldn’t fall asleep the entire night. On the next morning, they filed a complaint against judge Deng Wei for wrongfully sentencing their loved one. 

The complaints were sent to Hanyang District Procuratorate, Wuhan City Procuratorate, Hubei Province Procuratorate, Hanyang District Court and Wuhan City Intermediate Court. 

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

The family wrote in the complaint that judge Deng appointed a lawyer to enter a guilty plea for Ms. Zhou without asking for their opinion, despite knowing that she had entrusted a family member to represent her. Deng also failed to inform her family of the hearing and sentenced her when no law has ever criminalized Falun Gong in China. 

At the same time, Ms. Zhou’s family appealed the verdict for her with the Wuhan City Intermediate Court and submitted their Power of Attorney on January 28. 

On February 7, a heavy snow day and the first day after the appeals court returned to work following the Chinese New Year holiday week, Ms. Zhou’s family travelled there to inquire about her case. They called judge Zhang Yong in the lobby and repeated that there is no legal basis for the sentencing and that they are concerned whether Ms. Zhou, who is 73, could survive the six-year prison term. 

The family submitted seven requests to judge Zhang through clerk Yang Kuo, demanding the court hold an opening hearing of her case, allow the family to review her case documents, visit her and write letters to her, return the items confiscated from her, and release her on bail. 

The family added that judge Deng of the trial court violated the law by not informing them of the hearing and also failing to address the police’s violation of legal procedure in ransacking her home without a warrant and giving them a confiscation list without a signature. It’s even more unacceptable for the police to determine that the Falun Gong related materials confiscated from her were “illegal items,” as it’s usually up to a third-party agency to verify the evidence, not the police themselves. 

On the other hand, since no law has ever criminalized Falun Gong in China, Ms. Zhou should never have been charged for owing Falun Gong related materials in the first place. And the prosecutor also failed to provide any evidence to support the allegation that she “undermined law enforcement with a cult organization,” which has been the standard pretext used to imprison Falun Gong practitioners.

Ms. Zhou’s family provided two supporting documents. One was the notice from the Chinese publication bureau to lift the ban on Falun Gong literature in 2011 and another was a cult list from the Ministry of Public Security that didn’t include Falun Gong. They demanded the higher court revoke Ms. Zhou’s conviction and acquit her. 

Ms. Zhou’s family also wrote to the following agencies on February 7, demanding to have an open hearing of her appeal case, including Hubei Provincial Intermediate Court, Hubei Provincial High Court, Wuhan City Procuratorate, Hubei Provincial High Procuratorate, Wuhan City Supervision Bureau, Hubei Provincial Supervision Department, Dongxihu District Political and Legal Affairs Committee, Hanyang District Political and Legal Affairs Committee, Wuhan City Political and Legal Affairs Committee, and Dongxihu District Police Department.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Yang Kuo (杨阔), clerk, Wuhan City Intermediate Court: [phone]Zhang Yong (张勇), officer, Wuhan City Intermediate Court: [phone]Deng Wei (邓玮), judge, Hanyang District Court: [phone], [phone]

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

Related reports:

73-Year-Old Woman Wrongfully Sentenced to Six Years for Her Faith

Hubei Woman’s Family Continues to Seek Justice Against Her Wrongful Indictment

Hubei Woman’s Family Sues Prosecutor for Wrongful Indictment

Five Hubei Residents Face Prosecution for Their Faith

Hubei Woman Taken Back into Custody Despite Having Failed Physical Examination, Faces Prosecution for Her Faith

Woman in Her 70s Detained for Two Weeks and Counting, Faces Prosecution for Her Faith