(Minghui.org) Ms. Fan Meiling, 62, from Langfang City, Hebei Province, recently lost her appeal against a 1.5-year prison sentence for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Fan was arrested at her rental place in Anci District, Langfang City on March 2, 2023. The arresting officers from the Nanmenwai Police Station took her to the Langfang City Detention Center and delegated her case to their subordinate Wenan County Domestic Security Office.
Prosecutor Chen Jianfeng of the Wenan County Procuratorate indicted Ms. Fan on March 15 and forwarded the case to the Bazhou City Procuratorate on April 17. Prosecutor Yang Yubiao then submitted the case to the Bazhou City Court on May 17.
Ms. Fan stood trial on July 27 and was sentenced to 1.5 years and fined 5,000 yuan on August 17. The Langfang City Intermediate Court ruled on October 24 to uphold the verdict.
Family Defender Not Allowed to Review Case Documents
Ms. Fan’s son Dong applied to be her non-lawyer defender during her trial [in China, lawyers and non-lawyers can represent defendants]. He asked to have a copy of his mother’s indictment, but presiding judge Zhang Bin of the Bazhou City Court refused his request and also refused his numerous requests to review the case documents. Dong demanded to know why, as no law prohibits non-lawyer defenders from reviewing case files. Zhang said it was because of the special circumstances of the case, but he refused to provide specifics.
Dong repeatedly tried, unsuccessfully, to get Zhang to answer his phone calls or meet with him. He then went to the appeals division of the court and made three requests: To have a pre-trial hearing, to review his mother’s case documents, and to have Zhang explain the reason he did not answer his phone calls. He did not receive a response to his requests.
Key Information Missing from Case File
Dong then also hired a lawyer to represent his mother. The lawyer was allowed to review the case file and noted a key piece of information was missing. By law, there should be an authentication report stating that the prosecution evidence was valid and admissible.
Dong was baffled as prosecutor Yang and his assistant Liu Ning told him before that they submitted an authentication report to the court. He asked judge Zhang but the judge refused to explain why the report was missing.
Dong then filed an open information disclosure with the Langfang City Police Department, which the procuratorate said issued the authentication report. Dong understood that only independent, third-party forensic agencies are allowed to issue authentication reports and that the police department was in no position to issue such a report. He still wanted to see the report included in the case file. It would help strengthen the defense as he could argue that the police issued the report without authorization and that the procuratorate knowingly used an invalid authentication report.
The police department refused to provide a copy of their authentication report so Dong filed an administrative reconsideration request with the Langfang City Government and the Langfang City Judicial Bureau, requesting that they order the police department share the authentication report with him. When he did not receive a response he proceeded to file an administrative litigation against the police department with the Guangyang District Court in Langfang City. The court declined to register the litigation case.
Dong then talked to prosecutor Yang and his assistant Liu, who refused to talk to him in-person or on the phone. Liu later asked a subordinate to pick up Dong’s call and said they’d send the authentication report to the court again. It is unclear whether the report was ever added back to the case file as details of Ms. Fan’s court hearing remain to be investigated.
After his mother was sentenced, Dong requested to review her case documents during her appeals process, but the Langfang City Intermediate Court refused his request and refused to allow him to meet with his mother.
Past Persecution
Ms. Fan is from Ningan County, Inner Mongolia. She suffered from pneumonia, gastroptosis, duodenal ulcer and gynecological diseases caused by a miscarriage. All her illnesses disappeared after she began practicing Falun Gong in 1995. She also mended her strained relationship with her mother-in-law and remained calm when her husband had an extra-marital affair and beat her. Her husband was later sentenced to ten years after running into conflicts with someone, yet she never gave up on him despite his violent temper and infidelity. Her son and daughter knew very well that Falun Gong gave their mother the strength to forgive their father and carry on.
After the persecution began, Ms. Fan was targeted multiple times for her faith. She was detained for a month and held in a brainwashing center for three months following an arrest in March 2002. She was arrested again on October 12, 2015, for suing Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime who ordered the persecution, and was detained for another month.
After she was released in November 2015, Ms. Fan moved to Langfang City, Hebei Province, about 340 miles away.
Ms. Fan was arrested on January 2, 2017, while talking to people about Falun Gong in Wenan County, Langfang City. When she failed the physical exam, she was released on bail a few days later. She moved from place to place within Langfang City to hide from the police, only to be arrested five years later.
Ms. Fan hasn’t been able to go back to Inner Mongolia to visit her parents since 2017, and the elderly couple who are in their 80s miss her very much. Every time Ms. Fan’s daughter went to visit them, Ms. Fan’s 88-year-old father asked how her mother was doing. He is now bedridden and his only wish is to see his daughter again.
Related Article in Chinese:
Related report:
Inner Mongolia Woman Arrested After Five Years in Hiding to Avoid Being Persecuted for Her Faith
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