Sichuan Woman Continues Seeking Justice Against Wrongful Sentence for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) After an appeals court ruled to uphold Ms. Luo Mingchun’s four-year prison sentence for practicing Falun Gong, the Xichang City, Sichuan Province, resident continued her efforts to seek justice.

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

Arrest, Sentencing, and Appeal

Ms. Luo was arrested on August 12, 2019 in a police sweep. She and five other practitioners and one practitioner’s husband were sentenced to prison terms of between six months and five years on December 9, 2020, by the Xichang City Court. Ms. Luo was given four years. They appealed with the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold their original verdicts on March 2, 2021.

Motion to Reconsider Case

Ms. Luo and the other six wrongly-convicted locals then filed a motion to reconsider their case with the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Intermediate Court. Their lawyers also filed complaints with the Liangshan Prefecture Intermediate Procuratorate against the police, prosecutors, and judges for arresting and sentencing their clients without any legal basis.

Meanwhile, Ms. Luo’s family filed a complaint with the Liangshan Prefecture Procuratorate against the guards of the Xichang City Detention Center, for hanging her up by the wrists for extended periods of time. While the prosecutor forwarded the case to the supervision division, her family never received further information about it.

In December 2021, after two hearings, the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Intermediate Court ruled to reject the practitioners’ motion to reconsider the case.

Continued Efforts to Seek Justice

Ms. Luo’s family didn’t give up the efforts to seek justice. In mid-January 2022, they filed another motion to reconsider the case with the Sichuan High Court, and also filed two protests, with the Liangshan Prefecture Intermediate Procuratorate and the Sichuan Provincial Procuratorate.

In China, usually only procuratorates can file protests against verdicts handed to defendants, and it is unclear why Ms. Luo, a defendant in her case, was allowed to file protests.

The Liangshan Prefecture Intermediate Procuratorate informed Ms. Luo’s mother on February 17, 2022 that they had forwarded the protest to the lower procuratorate, which accepted it and would respond in three months.

Tortured Following Latest Arrest

Ms. Luo took up Falun Gong in 2008. She credits the practice with curing her severe depression and other ailments. With a new outlook on life, she took on many household chores, and lessened much burden of her family. Because of upholding her faith, she has been arrested multiple times before being sentenced in 2020.

In particular, Ms. Luo was tortured following her latest arrest on August 12, 2019. Because she refused to wear the detainees’ clothing or answer roll call upon arrival at the Xichang City Detention Center, guard Song Jianping locked her to a utility pole for the entire morning of August 18.

When Ms. Luo resisted an inspection at the detention center at a later time, guards Song and Yang Hongping ordered armed officers to drag her out. Her clothes were torn as she was dragged along the sidewalk.

The officers suspended Ms. Luo by her wrists on a door frame, with her toe-tips barely touching the ground. Her hands became bruised soon after. As time went on, her whole body became painful. She had difficulty breathing and she felt exhausted and thirsty. The guards kept her hung up for the entire morning. When she was let down, her arms were already injured and she was unable to hold things.

Guard Yang ordered the officers to hang up Ms. Luo for a third time in early December 2019 when she again resisted wearing the inmates’ clothing. To punish her, they threw away all of her own clothing and didn’t allow anyone to give theirs to her.

When Ms. Luo’s lawyer came to visit her, an officer named Wang Kai handcuffed her hands behind her back. While walking to the visitation room, he pushed her, pulled on the cuffs to make them tighter, and also verbally abused her.

Perpetrators’ contact information:
Li Zhiping (李治平), president of Liangshan Prefecture Procuratorate: [phone]Liu Bo (刘波), vice president of Liangshan Prefecture Procuratorate: [phone], [phone]Yuan Liqiang (袁力强), vice president of Liangshan Prefecture Procuratorate: [phone], [phone]

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

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Five Sichuan Residents’ Motion to Reconsider Their Prison Sentences Accepted by Intermediate Court

Sichuan Woman Not Allowed to Appeal Wrongful Sentence Against Her Faith

Sichuan Woman Sentenced to Four Years, Suffers Hanging Torture in Detention Center

Seven Sichuan Residents Sentenced to Prison, Families in Distress

Six Falun Gong Practitioners and One Spouse Stand Trial

Four Sichuan Residents Indicted for Their Faith, File Appeals to Have Cases Dropped

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Ms. Luo Mingchun Arrested and Facing Prosecution

Sichuan Residents Seeking Justice for Wrongful Sentences