(Minghui.org) A Beijing resident was recently sentenced at home for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
A total of ten judges and clerks from the Changping District Court went to Ms. Fan Jirong’s home on November 27, 2020, and announced that they were re-activating her case from 2013 for putting up Falun Gong banners. They then ordered three Emergency Medical Technicians, who had come along in an ambulance, to examine Ms. Fan. After the EMTs said Ms. Fan shouldn’t be detained due to her health, the judges proceeded to hold a hearing in her home.
The judges returned on December 3 and announced that she was sentenced to four years with a 10,000-yuan fine. She is preparing to appeal the verdict.
Ms. Fan was first arrested on July 8, 2013, for putting up Falun Gong banners. She developed severe symptoms after 3.5 months of detention and was released on bail. Due to frequent police harassment, she was forced to live away from home.
Ms. Fan was arrested again on May 18, 2017, as she left her apartment. The police told her that they were trying to close her case from 2013, which had remained active after she was put on the wanted list because she’d been living away from home. When she failed the physical exam, the Changping Detention Center refused to accept her and released her that evening.
The police harassed her a few more times between March and May 2018. She was also summoned to the police station, but she refused to go.
On June 23, 2018, Ms. Fan was arrested yet again after being reported for putting up Falun Gong posters. Although she was released the next afternoon, the police submitted her case to the procuratorate, which later indicted her.
The police called her home on August 22, 2018, and said she had to go to the hospital for a physical. Her family hung up and said she wasn’t home.
The next day, the police went to Ms. Fan’s home and told her in person to go get the physical exam. She replied, “I will not.” The police didn’t say anything and left.
The police called Ms. Fan again on November 23, 2018, and said they would deliver her indictment document the week after. They then came on December 6 with the prosecutor, telling her that they would hear her case in 2019.
On January 14, 2019, the police, prosecutor, and judge went to her home to hold a hearing. But Ms. Fan was taking her daughter for a prenatal checkup when they came, so they said they would wait until she returned. When Ms. Fan refused to comply, the judge said they would postpone her hearing until after the Chinese New Year.
While a hearing never took place in 2019, the police continued to harass Ms. Fan in 2020, before the judges sentenced her in December 2020.
Related report:
Beijing Woman Harassed for Her Faith, Has Blood Sample and Biometrics Forcibly Taken
Beijing: the Persecution of Practitioner Fan Jirong
Related article in Chinese:
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