80-year-old Retired Doctor Taken into Custody to Serve a Two-year Term for Practicing Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) An 80-year-old retired doctor has been taken into custody to serve a two-year term for practicing Falun Gong, a mind-body discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Liu Junhua retired from the hospital affiliated with Southwest Petroleum University in Nanchong City, Sichuan Province. She has been repeatedly harassed by the local police and residential committee staff members since September 2019.

Two police officers and the university’s security director went to Ms. Liu’s home on April 23, 2021, and ordered her to sign a statement to renounce Falun Gong. She refused to comply and they left.

They went to harass Ms. Liu again on May 21, 2021. She wasn’t home. Her husband, who opened the door for the officers, condemned them for the harassment.

Shortly after the officers left, they saw Ms. Liu walking down the street. They approached her in a police car, took her photo, and asked her about her where her daughter worked. (It’s not clear if her daughter practices Falun Gong or why the police targeted her.)

The police called Ms. Liu’s husband on June 30, 2021, and asked him if their daughter was home (they shared the residence with their daughter). He replied that she had gone to work.

Zhang Xiaolan, a professor at Southwest Petroleum University who has engaged in brainwashing Falun Gong practitioners, called Ms. Liu’s husband on July 21 and 22, 2021, demanding to talk to the couple’s daughter. He told Professor Zhang that, even if she came, he wouldn’t open the door for her.

On July 23, 2021, the police installed a surveillance camera facing the front door of Ms. Liu’s apartment. Her husband took a photo of the camera and removed it that same day. He filed a complaint with the Shunqing District Court against the police for infringing upon their privacy.

In retaliation, the police submitted Ms. Liu’s case to the Shunqing District Procuratorate, which indicted her and moved her case to the Shunqing District Court.

Ms. Liu first appeared in court on April 19, 2022, and was let go after the hearing. Less than two months later, on June 10, the police and the university’s security officers harassed her and deceived her husband into opening the door by claiming they were going to give them COVID vaccine shots. They confiscated Ms. Liu’s hand-copied Falun Gong book and took her to the police station. She was released hours later.

The court held a second hearing on February 15, 2023, and sentenced her to two years with a 3,000-yuan fine on March 17. She was taken to the Nanchong City Detention Center right after the sentencing. She has appealed with the Nanchong City Intermediate Court.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Qing Xing (卿星), director of the Shunqing District 610 Office: [phone]Li Bo (李波), judge, the Shunqing District Court: [phone]Jiang Juan (蒋娟), Party secretary of the Shunqing District Court: [phone]Xiao Yihui (肖熠辉), prosecutor, the Shunqing District Procuratorate: [phone]Chen Qin (陈琴), prosecutor, the Shunqing District Procuratorate: [phone], [phone]