81-year-old Woman Taken to Prison to Serve an Expired Term

(Minghui.org) Ms. Liu Naifen, 81, was allowed to serve her 1.5-year term for practicing Falun Gong at home. Her term expired in December 2018, but the authorities recently took her back into custody and took her to prison to serve her term. She has also been denied family visits.

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

Ms. Liu, of Langfang City, Hebei Province, was arrested on July 7, 2017, for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong, together with her daughter-in-law, Ms. Zhang Xiangrong, and Ms. Zhang’s mother. While Ms. Zhang’s mother, who didn’t practice Falun Gong, was soon released on bail, the police frequently came to harass her. She was so terrified that she became ill and passed away three months later.

In the meantime, Ms. Liu and Ms. Zhang were abused in the local detention center. The guards only gave them five minutes to use the restroom each time and only allowed them to take a shower every 15 days, despite the summer weather.

Ms. Liu couldn’t keep food down and had persistent diarrhea. She was forced to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong against her will and was released on bail on August 10, 2017. The police harassed her at home after she was released.

Both Ms. Liu and Ms. Zhang were tried by the Anci District Court on January 20, 2020. The judge announced on August 21, 2020, that Ms. Zhang was sentenced to two years and Ms. Liu to one and a half years. They were each also fined 1,000 yuan.

Ms. Liu, who had been detained for just over one month (from July 7, 2017, to August 10, 2017), had about 17 more months to serve at the time of her sentencing. Due to her advanced age and health condition, she was allowed to serve the remainder of her sentence at home under supervision.

In early November 2021, the police arrested Ms. Liu, took her for a physical examination, and held her at the police station overnight. Only when the physical report came out and she was found to have certain medical conditions, did the police release her.

But days later, on November 16, Xu Jianlu, the deputy chief of Longhe Police Station, broke into Ms. Liu’s home and arrested her again. When she refused to go with them, Xu called in three more officers, who forcibly carried Ms. Liu into the police car and took her to the Langfang City Detention Center.

When Ms. Liu’s family went to the detention center to make a deposit for her in March 2022, they were told that she was no longer there. The family called officer Xu. He refused to reveal Ms. Liu’s whereabouts but asked the family to look for her themselves. After much effort, the family found out that Ms. Liu had been taken to the Hebei Province Women’s Prison. They demanded to visit her but were rejected with the excuse of the pandemic. They are now very worried about her safety and health.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Zheng Xiaoying (郑晓英), president of Hebei Province Women’s Prison: [phone]Yang Yufen (杨玉芬), vice president of Hebei Province Women’s Prison

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

Related reports:

Woman and Her Mother-in-Law Sentenced for Their Faith, Her Own Mother Dies After Police Harassment

Woman in Serious Condition and Mother-in-Law, 78, Made to Stand Trial for Their Faith

Mother and Daughter-in-law Arrested for Posting Falun Gong Materials