(Minghui.org) A 73-year-old resident of Huanren County, Liaoning Province was sentenced to 3.5 years in early May 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 has filed an appeal and is now awaiting the result.
Ms. Niu 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 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 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 11.5 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.
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Persecution Suffered by Ms. Niu Yan from Huanren County, Liaoning Province
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