Chinese Court Attempts to Incarcerate an 81-year-old Woman Despite Her Poor Health

(Minghui.org) After an 81-year-old ailing woman lost her appeal protesting a 1.5-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong, the court kept pressuring her children to take her for a physical exam in order to admit her to prison. When the results of the exams indicated that she was in poor health and should not be incarcerated, the authorities ordered she be hospitalized.

Ms. Wang of Kunming City, Yunnan Province, was arrested at a farmer’s market on October 11, 2020, after being suspected of distributing calendars with information about Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.

Ms. Wang appeared in the Xishan District Court on April 12, 2022, and was sentenced to 1.5 years with a 5,000-yuan fine on April 24. She filed an appeal with the Kunming City Intermediate Court to reconsider her sentence.

Judge Zhang Chongkai of the intermediate court arraigned Ms. Wang on May 16. He brought up the fact that Ms. Wang refused to accept the lawyer appointed by the Xishan District Court for her trial and asked if she would accept a court-appointed lawyer this time for her appeal.

Ms. Wang agreed on the condition that the lawyer enter a not-guilty plea for her. But Zhang never appointed a lawyer, and he and two other judges, Liu Xiaoyuan and Zhang Jun, ruled to uphold her original verdict on May 24. She was notified of the decision on June 9.

The police called Ms. Wang on June 20, 2022, about getting a physical exam. They came the next day and took her to the Xinhua Hospital. Although the results indicated that her health was poor and that she shouldn’t be incarcerated, the court claimed that the hospital’s report wasn’t reliable and ordered her family to take her to the Kunming First People’s Hospital to repeat the exam. The police monitored the second exam, and Ms. Wang’s family had to pay nearly 1,000 yuan in fees themselves. Because the results were the same, the court postponed the enforcement of Ms. Wang’s term.

For the next few months, Ms. Wang’s children were pressured by the court and 610 Office agents to monitor her. They kept telling her that she couldn’t go out or even go downstairs in her apartment building.

The Kunming City Justice Bureau called Ms. Wang’s children on March 10, 2023, and ordered them to take her to their own medical center for an exam, as the bureau refused to acknowledge the report produced by the Kunming First People’s Hospital. Her children took her, and the doctor only measured Ms. Wang’s blood pressure, which remained dangerously high.

Pressured by the court, Ms. Wang’s children took her to the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University on March 14 for yet another physical. Her children paid another over 1,000 yuan in fees. The results were the same.

In order to seek permission for Ms. Wang to serve time at home, her children managed to obtain her medical records from 20 years ago. The records indicated she had a history of a heart condition, but the court still refused to approve their request for her to serve time out of prison.

Shortly after Ms. Wang’s physical exam on March 14, the authorities ordered the First Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University to admit her in mid-April, even when the regular patients had to wait for weeks or months for hospital beds. It’s not clear whether her children took her to the hospital.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Ou Lingjun (欧灵军), prosecutor, Xishan District ProcuratorateYang Yue (杨越), president of the Xishan District CourtPu Huijun (普会峻), presiding judge, Xishan District Court: [phone]Li Hui (李辉), head of Xishan District Police Department: [phone]Ye Bingsheng (叶兵胜), officer, Jinniu Police Station: [phone]Zi Liqiong (自丽琼), prosecutor, Xishan District Procuratorate: [phone], [phone]Yin Bo (尹波), president of the Kunming City Intermediate CourtLiu Xiaoyuan (刘晓媛), judge, Kunming City Intermediate Court

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

Related reports:

80-Year-Old Woman Appeals Wrongful Prison Sentence for Her Faith

Woman in Her 80s Faces Trial for Practicing Falun Gong, Urges Authorities to Dismiss Her Case