(Minghui.org) A Huaihua City, Hunan Province resident was sentenced to three years in prison for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Lei Huamei has appealed the verdict and is awaiting the result.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Arrest
Ms. Lei was followed by the police, as she distributed informational materials about Falun Gong on her way home after work on September 27, 2020. The police arrested her and took her to the Chengzhong Police station.
After the police handcuffed her, she shouted “Falun Dafa is good! I didn’t do anything wrong for being a good person. You are violating the law in persecuting me!” One officer threatened to stuff her mouth with a rag if she continued shouting.
The police snatched Ms. Lei’s purse. They refused to show their police IDs and covered their badges to prevent her from seeing their names. The officer who interrogated her also refused to tell her his name, even though he dared her to sue him for the persecution.
Ms. Lei was taken back home at around 11 p.m. The police grabbed her handcuff and pushed her hard. After the police left, she realized that her home key and ID were missing from her purse. She returned to the police station to ask for the missing items and found a bag of Falun Gong books, which were secretly confiscated by the police who took her key without her knowledge.
The police returned her the key and ID, but refused to give her the books back. They also turned off the lights inside and outside of the police station, in order to force her to leave.
Another group of officers found Ms. Lei at the drug store she worked at around noon the next day. They told her to go with them to the police station claiming it was so she could pick up her Falun Gong books. Ms. Lei said she couldn’t leave work and would go there another day. The police insisted that she go with them right then and dragged her into the police car.
The police handcuffed her and searched her body again at the police station. Yet they still refused to return her Falun Gong books. With her family’s strong demands for her release, the police let her go at around 5 p.m.
Sentenced to Prison
Ms. Lei was arrested again on November 13, 2020, at work and held at the Huaihua City Detention Center.
During her first hearing by the Zhijiangdong Autonomous County Court on March 16, 2021, she refused to accept the court-appointed lawyer. She acted as her own lawyer and argued that she didn’t violate any law in practicing Falun Gong and trying to be a good person.
Except for her mother and parents-in-law, judge Chen Qingzhen didn’t allow any of her other family members or friends to attend the hearing.
Ms. Lei’s family hired two lawyers for her after the March hearing. The lawyers entered a not guilty plea for her during the second hearing on May 10.
Ms. Lei’s son and daughter also went to the court, but weren’t allowed to enter the courtroom, with the excuse that they were too young. Although the judge promised to arrange for Ms. Lei’s children to meet with her after the hearing, they were never allowed to see her after waiting for a day.
The judge announced to sentence Ms. Lei to three years with a 2,000-yuan fine on July 22, 2021.
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