(Minghui.org) Ms. Wang Yanqiu, 75, from Tonghua City, Jilin Province was sentenced to five years and fined 5,000-yuan on November 30, 2023 for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. Ms. Wang said she would appeal the wrongful conviction. She is currently held at the Tonghua City Detention Center.
Ms. Wang’s sentence stemmed from her arrest on February 25, 2020, after she was reported for putting up self-adhesive stickers which had information about Falun Gong in Yixin Village, Tiechang Town, Erdaojiang District, Tonghua City. The Tiechang Town Government instructed the Yixin Village head to seize Ms. Wang and her companion, Ms. Li Shourong, another practitioner who lives in the same street community in Tiechang Town as Ms. Li.
The two women were turned over to the Tiechang Town Police Station, They were released on bail that day after undergoing physical examinations.
On May 11, 2021, the street community office notified Ms. Wang’s and Ms. Li’s daughters that they planned to visit the practitioners the next day. They came to Ms. Li’s home the next day. About seven or eight of them took her picture and tore down the decorative couplets on her door. They harassed Ms. Wang the following day and also tore down her couplets. They returned several times to harass Ms. Wang and photograph her.
The Tiechang Town Police Station raided Ms. Wang’s home one day around July or August 2022 and confiscated her computer, Falun Gong books and other valuables. They returned on August 24, 2023 and took her to the Erdaojiang District Procuratorate, where she was ordered to sign the indictment against her. It is unclear whether Ms. Li faced further prosecution.
The Erdaojiang District Procuratorate later delegated the case to its subordinate Liuhe County Procuratorate, which in turn forwarded the case to the Liuhe County Court.
On October 30, 2023, the court issued an order to take Ms. Wang into custody at the Tonghua City Detention Center in preparation for her trial. She failed the required physical examination and was sent home.
Ms. Wang stood trial on November 30 and judge Lu Xu sentenced her. She said she would file an appeal with the Tonghua City Intermediate Court. Lu, and Liu Yang, an instructor of the Tiechang Town Police Station who was present at her hearing, accused her of having a bad attitude. They had the police take her to the Tonghua City Detention Center right after the hearing.
The detention center initially refused to admit her after she failed the required physical examination. The police still managed to get her admitted by saying the detention center would not be held responsible if anything happened to her.
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