71-Year-Old Woman Jailed for Talking to People about Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A 71-year-old woman in Hengyang City, Hunan Province, has been admitted to Hunan Province Women’s Prison to serve a one-year term for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Luo Fenghua was reported for talking to people about Falun Gong on June 27, 2023. She was arrested as she was about to check out at a supermarket and taken to the Tongtai Street Police Station, where the four people who reported her were also present.

Without showing an arrest warrant or any identification, the police detained Ms. Luo in the station for eight hours before transferring her to the Changsha City Lockup at around 11 p.m. Six officers handcuffed her so roughly that a piece of flesh nearly two inches long was torn off her left thumb. The police offered no treatment for her bleeding finger and detained her in a cold, dark room overnight.

At 10 a.m. the next day, freezing and starving, Ms. Luo was taken to the Changqiao Hospital for a physical exam. She refused to cooperate, so the police falsified reports of her exam. By the time she was taken to the Changsha City Fourth Detention Center around 4:30 p.m., she hadn’t eaten for over 40 hours and was so weak that the police had to find her a wheelchair.

The police confiscated 320 yuan in papers bills with information about Falun Gong printed on them from Ms. Luo. This is one way that Falun Gong practitioners raise awareness about the persecution. The bills were later used as evidence against her.

Ms. Luo was held in the detention center for four months and 12 days and lost over 22 pounds during that time.

At around 10 p.m. on October 28, Ms. Luo suddenly experienced intense stomach pain and she fell out of her bed onto the floor. The guard gave her some painkillers and took her to the Changqiao Hospital around 11 p.m. The doctor said she had acute pancreatitis and needed immediate surgery. Because she didn’t trust the guards or the doctor, she didn’t agree.

The guards took her to another hospital for a second opinion and the doctor said the same thing. Ms. Luo still didn’t agree to the operation. She was taken back to Changqiao Hospital, handcuffed and shackled, for conservative treatment. The guards kept her shackled to the bed. They wouldn’t remove the shackles even when she went to the bathroom. The shackles rubbed against her heels, causing them to bleed.

On November 17, the police put her in a police car, still handcuffed and shackled, and drove her for over an hour to the Liuyang City Court.

At the courthouse, Ms. Luo was confused and didn’t get out of the car immediately. An officer in his 20s shouted at her three times, “Are you getting out or not?” Before she could respond, he dragged her out of the car and then all the way into the courthouse before throwing her into a chair in a small room. Her feet rubbed against the ground and her top was lifted and wrapped around her head, making it difficult for her to breathe. Her upper body was also completely exposed.

After Ms. Luo caught her breath, she said to the young officer, “Don’t you have an elderly person at home? If your grandmother was humiliated like this, what would you think? What crime have I committed? Why do you have to treat me like this? What’s your name?” The officer said his surname was Zhang.

When Ms. Luo refused to enter the courtroom, the judges and clerk went to the little room and announced that she was sentenced to 12 months with 15 months probation and a 10,000-yuan fine. Her “crime” was “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” the standard pretext used to frame Falun Gong practitioners.

When Ms. Luo filed an appeal on December 22, the police and justice bureau harassed and threatened her that they would take her back into custody. A court official went with her lawyer to her home on December 28. Because she wasn’t there, they forced her son to sign the letter to withdraw her appeal. She was taken to the Hunan Province Women’s Prison, even though she wasn’t originally required to serve time in prison given her probation.