(Minghui.org) Ms. Li Jihong, 68, of Jinan City, Shandong Province is facing trial for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Li’s family hired a lawyer to represent her. When the lawyer went to Jinan Detention Center to visit her, he was told that the local justice bureau didn’t allow lawyers to represent Falun Gong practitioners or visit them. After the coronavirus broke out in January 2020, the detention center has also denied Ms. Li family visits.
Ms. Li was arrested on August 24, 2019, after a plainclothes officer spotted her giving a Falun Gong keepsake to a child at a farmers’ market.
The police interrogated Ms. Li for two hours before bringing her back to her home around 5 p.m. They spent the next five hours ransacking her residence. Her computer, printer, Falun Gong materials, and an unknown amount of cash were confiscated.
Ms. Li refused to sign the list of confiscated items. When the police forced her neighbor to sign the paperwork on her behalf, her neighbor asked the police not to torture Ms. Li because she is a good person.
By the time the police took Ms. Li back to the police station, it was 11 p.m. She was so exhausted that she fell asleep on the concrete floor. Seven officers woke her up at around 3 a.m. and interrogated her. She refused to answer any of their questions despite the intimidation.
Ms. Li was sent to Jinan Detention Center on August 27 and has been held there since.
The police ransacked her home again in early September and confiscated more Falun Gong items. They submitted her case to the Shizhong District Procuratorate in October, only to have it returned for insufficient evidence.
For the next two months, the police interrogated Ms. Li seven times to try to force her to “confess.” She refused to comply.
The police resubmitted her case in early December. The prosecutor accepted it this time and forwarded it to the Changqing District Procuratorate, which is one of the three procuratorates assigned to handle all Falun Gong cases in Jinan.
Ms. Li was indicted in January 2020 and is now awaiting trial by the Changqing District Court.
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