(Minghui.org) A 61-year-old Benxi City, Liaoning Province resident was sentenced to three years and fined 4,000 yuan on December 10, 2024 for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Zhao Huijun was arrested on April 11, 2024, while talking to people about Falun Gong on the street. Officers from the Gaoyun Police Station raided her home and confiscated her computer. The police also pressured her family’s landlord to evict them under the pretext that someone wanted to buy the property.
Prosecutor Ma Jing from the Xihu District Procuratorate and her assistant Hu Xinyu indicted Ms. Zhao on July 19, 2014.
The Xihu District Court heard the case on October 17, 2024. Ms. Zhao’s lawyer and non-lawyer defender both defended her innocence. They also testified against judge Wang Mian. The non-lawyer defender had requested multiple times to see Ms. Zhao before the court hearing, but Wang used various excuses to deny the requests.
After the hearing, the defender requested many times again to see Ms. Zhao, but Wang still said no each time. When the defender called the court yet another time on January 16, 2025, no one picked up the phone. He then visited the court in person the next day to inquire about the case status. Only then was he told that judge Wang had sentenced Ms. Zhao on December 10, 2024.
Judge Wang, however, didn’t hold an open sentencing hearing, nor did he deliver the verdict to the lawyer or non-lawyer defender as required by law. Wang only gave the defender a copy of the verdict after the latter requested one upon finding out about the prison sentence on January 17, 2025. The defender has now filed an appeal on behalf of Ms. Zhao.
Ms. Zhao’s husband is paralyzed on one side of his body after suffering a stroke some years ago. He cannot take care of himself. The couple’s daughter is jobless. The family of three relies on Ms. Zhao’s meager monthly pension of 1,500 yuan to get by. It is unclear whether they have been able to pay the court fine of 4,000 yuan yet.
This is not the first time that Ms. Zhao has been targeted for her faith, which she took up in 1998 and credits for curing her uterine fibroids, cholecystitis, and stomach ulcers. She was previously jailed twice, serving a 6-year term between April 13, 2007 and April 12, 2013 and another 3-year term from July 31, 2014 to July 30, 2017. She was brutally tortured during both prison terms. For details of Ms. Zhao’s past persecution, see the related reports.
Ms. Zhao’s mother was arrested for practicing Falun Gong in June 2002. The police handcuffed her to a heating pipe for a day before transferring her to the Baishi Detention Center in Benxi. She had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. She managed to escape and went into hiding. She was later arrested again and given two years in a forced labor camp.
Ms. Zhao’s father and mother-in-law passed away while she was serving her first prison sentence. Her daughter became withdrawn due to frequent police harassment.
The Benxi Social Security Bureau has been withholding Ms. Zhao’s pension since she completed her second prison term on July 30, 2017. They even ordered her to return the benefits that she had received during her imprisonment, but she refused.
Liaoning Woman Tortured to Near Death in Prison