(Minghui.org) Ms. Yu Huili, 85, from Qingdao City, Shandong Province was taken back into custody on July 28, 2023 to serve a three-year term given in 2020 for writing three letters in 2010, urging the recipients to not participate in the Chinese Communist Party’s persecution of Falun Gong.
Falun Gong is a mind-body practice based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Ms. Yu credits the practice for eliminating her numerous illnesses and enabling her to become a cheerful and considerate person. She wrote letters to the public to raise awareness of the persecution, only to be targeted and sentenced.
Arrested in 2010
Ms. Yu went to the Nanjing Road Post Office on the morning of April 30, 2010 to mail three letters to tell the recipients the persecution of Falun Gong was illegal. The plainclothes officers who were following her arrested her at the post office and searched her in front of the other customers. The police took the key to her home and photographed her.
After dropping her off at the Jinhu Road Police Station, the police ransacked her home, confiscating 3,500 yuan in cash, many Falun Gong books, DVDs containing Falun Gong information, and other valuables. According to a neighbor, the confiscated items filled five big bags.
The police never issued a list of confiscated items as required by law. They also forced Ms. Yu to undergo a physical examination. When she passed out on the evening she was arrested she was rushed to a local hospital. Only then did the police agree to release her on bail after she was resuscitated.
The police forced Ms. Yu’s daughter to pay her bail bond of 3,000 yuan. Ms. Yu has been repeatedly persecuted in the past for her faith, and her daughter reached a breaking point following her 2010 arrest. While she covered the bail bond as ordered by the police, she did not allow her mother to return to their home. Ms. Yu was forced to wander around.
The Shinan District Procuratorate later indicted Ms. Yu, and the Shinan District Court ordered her to attend a hearing on October 19, 2011. She refused to show up because she said she broke no laws. The court scheduled another hearing for December 18, 2012, but she was again a no-show as she firmly believed she should never have been prosecuted for exercising her constitutional right to freedom of belief.
The court did not summoned Ms. Yu again after the two hearings and she thought her case was over once and for all, only to get shocking news in 2020.
Notified of Prison Sentence in 2020
The Jinhu Road Police Station summoned Ms. Yu one summer day in 2020. After she got there, they drove her to the Shinan District Court, where she was notified of her three-year prison sentence handed down by judge Li Kunpeng.
Ms. Yu was deaf in one ear and did not hear clearly when she was sentenced. She was certain there were no more court hearings since the ones scheduled for October 19, 2011 and December 18, 2012. She did not understand how the judge could hand down a sentence without hearing her case in the first place. She wrote a letter to the court and the police urging them not to carry out the prison sentence.
The police drove Ms. Yu home after the announcement of her verdict and did not bother her for three years.
Taken Back into Custody in 2023
The Jinhu Road Police Station ordered Ms. Yu to undergo a physical examination on July 17, 2023. Her systolic blood pressure was 200 (when a healthy range is no more than 120), but the police claimed that she was still fit for detention. They arrested her on July 28 and took her straight to the Qingdao City Detention Center. She was transferred to the Jinan Prison one month later.
Even Earlier Persecution
Ms. Yu suffered from gastroenteritis, dizziness, neuralgia, and liver dysfunction when she was a child. She was diagnosed with nephritis and gynecological diseases during her college years. After graduation, she enlisted in the army and contracted hepatitis, tracheitis, and skin diseases. She retired from the army in 1969, only to contract heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and arteriosclerosis. In the decades that followed, Ms. Yu developed even more medical conditions, including edema, insomnia, heart palpitations, and chronic fatigue.
No medical treatments helped and Ms. Yu lived in misery. Her fate changed in February 1996 when she got a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main teachings of Falun Gong. The book answered her questions about life and helped her. Her health also improved significantly and she no longer needed to take any pills. As she strove to live by Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, she also became a kinder and more considerate person. Her family members and neighbors turned to her whenever they had conflicts as they trusted her in guiding them to find a resolution.
After the persecution began in July 1999, Ms. Yu was targeted for upholding her faith. The local police, 610 Office, street committee and her employer kept harassing her in an attempt to make her renounce Falun Gong. She went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on December 15, 1999 but was arrested. She was taken back to Qingdao and held at a local hotel for three days.
Ms. Li was arrested again on February 17, 2001 and held at the Shibei District Brainwashing Center located in a hotel affiliated with a rubber factory. She was not released until April 6 that year. Three months later, she was taken to the same brainwashing center again. She managed to escape ten days later by jumping out of a window.
Several street committee workers came to Ms. Yu’s home on the afternoon of February 25, 2002 and watched her closely until the next morning, when more than ten officers came and took her to the Wangcun Forced Labor Camp in Zibo City, Shandong Province. Her daughter did not know her mother had been arrested until the next day. Her blood pressure shot up while she was detained and she was released from the labor camp on March 18, 2002.
Copyright © 2023 Minghui.org. All rights reserved.
