(Minghui.org) Ms. Ju Yuxia, in her 60s, was sentenced to seven and a half years around May 2023 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since July 1999. In July 2023 the local appeals court ruled to uphold Ms. Ju Yuxia’s prison sentence without holding a hearing as she requested.
The wrongful conviction of Ms. Ju, who lives in Nanqianshan Village, Ningjin County, Hebei Province, stemmed from an earlier arrest on April 22, 2022. She and her son, Mr. Zhang Yuexing, were working in their home-based health clinic that day when a group of plainclothes officers walked in and told the patients to leave. The police did not show any IDs or search warrants.
They carried the mother and son to their police cruiser outside. As one officer watched them, the others went inside and raided the clinic. They confiscated a case of Falun Gong books and more than 80,000 yuan in paper currency printed with Falun Gong messages. [Note: As all legal channels to appeal for their right to practice their faith are blocked in China, Falun Gong practitioners use creative means, including printing messages on banknotes, to tell people about the persecution.]
The police also abducted Ms. Ju’s husband, Dr. Zhang Hongqian, who is in his 60s, from the clinic. They took all three family members to the Xujiahe Police Station in Ningjin County.
The police released the family the next day and placed them under house arrest. Another group of officers from the Political Security Brigade of the Ningjin County Police Department raided the family’s home hours later. [Note: While political security in the international community usually involves protecting citizens against state repression, China’s political security is the opposite and aims to suppress dissidents and faith groups in order to maintain the communist regime’s rule.]
On April 28, 2022, officer Ma Qinghui from the Political Security Brigade interrogated the family of three at the Nanqianshan Village Committee. He also videotaped the session. The family was then allowed to go home.
On July 6, 2022, several plainclothes officers broke into the Zhang family home and arrested all three again. They were taken to the Ningjin County Hospital for a physical examination, including CT scans, ultrasound imaging, electrocardiograms, and blood pressure tests.
Dr. Zhang and his son Mr. Zhang were then taken to the Ningjin County Detention Center that night, and Ms. Ju was taken to another hospital in Xingtai City, which oversees Ningjin County.
Mr. Zhang was released on bail on August 2, 2022. About two weeks later, several agents from the Political Security Brigade came to talk to him. They asked him to write to his parents in the detention center and persuade them to reveal who gave them the more than 80,000 yuan in banknotes printed with Falun Gong messages.
Officer Ma summoned Mr. Zhang to the Ningjin County Police Department on September 9, 2022. Weeks later, Ma interrogated Mr. Zhang again at the police department.
Mr. Zhang learned in mid-October 2022 that his mother was transferred to the Xingtai City First Detention Center.
Mr. Zhang went twice to the Ningjin County Detention Center, first in mid-October 2022 and then one month later, to deliver clothes to his father. But he was not allowed to see him. He later went to the Xingtai City First Detention Center to deliver clothes to his mother, but was not allowed to see her either.
He called the police department many times to inquire about his parents’ case status but the staff refused to update him.
Dr. Zhang was released on bail on May 23, 2023, after he had been badly tortured. His entire body was swollen (edema). His genitals, in particular, were extremely swollen. It is unclear what torture he may have been subjected to that resulted in the extreme swelling. Dr. Zhang is gradually recuperating after medical treatments at home, but he is still emaciated and weak. He is slow to respond and still becomes confused. He also falls for no reason.
Ms. Ju is also gravely ill and incapacitated as a result of the abuse she suffered while in custody. When her lawyer visited her in the Xingtai City Prison Hospital on July 5, 2023, he noted that her legs and eyes were also very swollen. She complained about feeling dizzy and weak. She couldn’t open one of her eyes and gradually lost vision in the other eye. The hospital doctors also diagnosed her with proteinuria (protein loss in urine, a sign of damaged kidneys).
Ms. Ju was sentenced to prison around May 2023. The details of her trial are still being investigated.
Judge Wang Jiapei of the Xingtai City Intermediate Court was assigned to handle Ms. Ju’s appeal case. Her lawyer went to the court on June 20, 2023 and submitted her power of attorney to judge Wang’s clerk. The lawyer also reviewed her case documents that day and discovered that the trial court made grave mistakes in sentencing his client. On June 26, he submitted an open-hearing request to judge Wang via express mail.
The lawyer called judge Wang on July 4 to ask about his request for an open hearing. Wang said he already ruled to uphold the original verdict. He hung up the phone when the lawyer asked why he did not inform the lawyer of his decision to not hold an open hearing so that the latter could prepare a written defense statement.
Dr. Zhang is known for his integrity, professionalism, and patient-centered care. Both locals and patient from out of town come to his clinic and there was always a long line every day. In China, appointments are usually not needed and patients simply walk in and are seen on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Ms. Ju has a very cheerful personality. As her husband was busy honing his professional skills and seeing patients, she was in charge of educating their children and running the clinic’s day to day operations. When the couple first opened the clinic more than three decades ago, very few patients knew about it so Ms. Ju also did farm work to supplement the family income.
Falun Gong taught Ms. Ju to live by its principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance and turned her into a better person. One of her pet phrases was, “We can’t take advantage of others and doing more work than others won’t cost us anything.” That was how she educated her children when they were young and how she required of herself in her interactions with people. Whenever anyone needed help, she never hesitated to lend a hand.
In China, patients usually must pay first before receiving care. Ms. Ju and Dr. Zhang, however, never turned away any patient who could not afford medical treatment. They treated every patient with respect and dignity, regardless of their financial situation. Sometimes out of town patients would show up during their lunch breaks, and the couple would drop everything to tend to them so that they wouldn’t have to wait.
Over the years, their patients gave the couple many pennants (little banners) with messages showing their appreciation and gratitude.
The couple also had a pharmacy in their clinic (in China, many hospitals and clinics run their own pharmacies). During the COVID pandemic, many pharmacies artificially raised the prices of fever medications. But Ms. Ju refused to engage in price gouging. When some patients commented that the prices she charged were even lower than wholesale pharmacies, she said, “The pandemic has made everyone’s life harder. If we can save our patients any money, we will.” When the pandemic control workers posted outside their clinic began coughing Ms. Ju gave them cough medicines for free.