(Minghui.org) A Xi’an City, Shaanxi Province, resident was admitted to the Xi’an City Women’s Prison on June 29, 2023, after losing her appeal against a 4.5-year prison sentence.
Ms. Zhang Xiwei’s ordeal stemmed from her arrest on July 21, 2021, for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. It was hot that day and she still kept her door open at around 10 p.m. More than ten people suddenly walked through the open door and then shut the door behind them.
She asked why they broke into her home and one of them flashed a search warrant. She wanted to take a picture of them, but they snatched her cell phone. They ordered her not to move and didn’t allow her to drink water when she felt thirsty. They raided her home and confiscated her Falun Gong book, several memory cards, one radio, one MP3 player, one computer, and other valuables.
The police took Ms. Zhang to the Kunming Road Police Station after the raid. She was given a COVID-19 test and a physical examination on the morning of July 23, 2021. At around 6 p.m. that day, she was transferred to a local detention center.
A group of agents broke into Ms. Zhang’s mother’s home in Liquan County (also in Shaanxi Province and about 35 miles away from Xi’an) on August 18, 2021. They refused to show their IDs and threatened to arrest the elderly woman too if she refused to cooperate with them. They questioned her if she knew who exposed the arrest of her daughter online and who hired a lawyer for her.
Ms. Zhang’s mother learned later that the agents were from the Yanta District Domestic Security Office, the Liquan County Domestic Security Office, and the Chigan Police Station.
The Yanta District Procuratorate later indicted Ms. Zhang, and the Yanta District Court held a virtual hearing of her case on May 30, 2022. Her lawyer entered a not-guilty plea and refuted the allegations against her. The court determined that there was not sufficient evidence to charge her and returned the case to the procuratorate, which in turn returned the case to the Yanta District Police Department.
The Yanta District Police Department couldn’t find any new evidence against Ms. Zhang but still managed to get the court to accept her case again. A second virtual hearing was held on August 16, 2022. Her lawyer pointed out the “new evidence” submitted by the police was actually the same old evidence deemed insufficient in the first court hearing. The judge soon adjourned the hearing and sentenced Ms. Zhang to four and a half years on November 22, 2022.
Ms. Zhang filed an appeal but it was denied. She was admitted to the Xi’an City Women’s Prison on June 29, 2023. Her family went to the prison on July 25 but was denied visits with her, even though it was during regular visiting hours. They were told that no family visits would be allowed unless Ms. Zhang agreed to renounce her faith.
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
