(Minghui.org) A 73-year-old resident of Huanren County, Liaoning Province, stood trial on February 29, 2024 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Niu Yan was arrested on the morning of March 9, 2023, while distributing Falun Gong informational materials. Officer Wang Qi took her to the Huanren County Police Department for interrogation. The next afternoon, she was taken to the Benxi City Hospital for a physical examination before being admitted to the Benxi City Detention Center. Benxi City oversees Huanren County.
Prosecutor Hou Yue (+86-24-45830112) of the Xihu District Procuratorate in Benxi City soon issued a formal arrest warrant for Ms. Niu. Her lawyer submitted a request to the Huanren County Police Department on May 12, 2023, asking that she be released on bail. Five days later, the lawyer went to the Xihu District Procuratorate to submit a request to have Ms. Wang’s arrest warrant revoked. The person in charge of accepting requests made two phone calls to his higher-ups before receiving the materials.
The lawyer called prosecutor Hou on June 6, 2023 and was told that the procuratorate was not going to drop the arrest warrant. The lawyer warned that Ms. Niu’s family had submitted a complaint against Hou to the Liaoning Province Inspection Team (which was responsible for investigating government employees’ dereliction of duty) a few days prior, on May 30.
Hou nonetheless indicted Ms. Niu and forwarded her case to the Xihu District Court. One of her family members applied to be her non-lawyer defender, but judge Wang Mian (+86-24-42885848, +86-18641467710) denied the request on the grounds that she already had a lawyer, when by law each defendant can have up to two non-lawyer defenders regardless of how many lawyers they have.
Ms. Niu stood trial on February 29, 2024, and six of her family and friends were allowed to attend the hearing. Her lawyer defended her constitutional right to freedom of belief.
Prosecutor Hou accused Ms. Niu of being a repeat offender, as she had previously been given one year of forced labor, and twice sentenced to prison, for a total of 10.5 years. Ms. Niu’s lawyer refuted that there is no law in China that criminalizes Falun Gong, and that she should never have been jailed in the first place. The judge adjourned the hearing without issuing a verdict.
Past Persecution
Given One Year of Forced Labor in 2000
Ms. Niu went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on January 29, 2000 and was arrested on Tiananmen Square. After she was escorted back, she was held in the Huanren County Detention Center for 15 days.
Ms. Niu was arrested again in the summer of 2000, while watching Falun Gong teaching videos at a private home. She was given one year of forced labor at the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp.
Sentenced to Seven Years Following Arrest in 2001
Not long after her release from the labor camp, Ms. Niu was arrested again in August 2001, while visiting nearby Xinbin County in the same province. The Xinbin County Court sentenced her to seven years in early 2002, and she was admitted to Team Nine of the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison in March 2003.
The prison guards arranged two inmates to monitor Ms. Niu around the clock. She was forced to do hard labor without pay from 6 a.m. into the evenings (sometimes to midnight). She was also not allowed to talk to anyone. She once exchanged a few words with someone and the guards revoked her and her two monitors’ privledges to water to clean themselves and use of the restroom. The guards did so to incite the monitors’ hatred toward her.
The guards once shocked Ms. Niu on the mouth, face, and neck with an electric baton for more than ten minutes upon discovering handwritten Falun Gong teachings in her possesion. As soon as the electric shock torture session was over, they forced her to go to the workshop to make clothing. The guards later punished her again after finding Falun Gong teachings with her a second time. They summoned her to their office and shocked her with electric batons. They next tied her hands behind her back and taped her mouth shut before making her sit on a small stool.
Unable to cope with the torture, Ms. Niu wrote statements renouncing Falun Gong against her will. After she came to her senses, she felt extreme regret and vowed to continue practicing Falun Gong.
Sentenced to 3.5 Years Following Arrest in 2014
Ms. Niu went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong on July 18, 2014, and was arrested while unfurling a banner on Tiananmen Square. She was escorted back and held at the Benxi City Detention Center for 14 months before being sentenced to 3.5 years by the Huanren County Court in 2015. Presiding judge Wang Xijie, and judges Chen Xiaoyun and Zhu Fuchen, signed the verdict. It was unclear where she served time.
Related Report:
Persecution Suffered by Ms. Niu Yan from Huanren County, Liaoning Province
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