(Minghui.org) Ms. Tang Changjun, 73, of Wuhan City, Hubei Province, who is serving a three and a half-year term for practicing Falun Gong, is suffering from a severe medical condition in Hubei Province Women’s Prison.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Tang, who was held at the police-affiliated Ankang Hospital after her arrest in April 2019, was secretly transferred to the prison without her family or lawyer’s knowledge after she was convicted in November 2020. As was the case at Ankang Hospital, the prison has continued to refuse to allow her family to visit her. The authorities have kept her family in the dark about her situation.
The prison called Ms. Tang’s family in November 2021 and said that she was suffering a severe medical condition and had been admitted to the hospital several times. It’s not clear if her family has now been allowed to visit her.
Ms. Tang was arrested on April 12, 2019, for talking to people about Falun Gong on the subway. The subway police tried to transfer her to her local Ziyanglu Police Station, but the latter refused to take her. The subway police then turned her over to the local Domestic Security Office.
Although the police failed to search Ms. Tang’s home that evening due to her family’s protests, the police returned the next morning with a search warrant and confiscated her computer, printer, and other personal belongings.
The Hanyang District Procuratorate approved Ms. Tang’s arrest on May 14, 2019, and indicted her on November 6, 2019. The Hanyang District Court held a virtual hearing on September 10, 2020. Her lawyer entered a not-guilty plea for her and she also testified in her own defense.
The judge sentenced Ms. Tang to three and a half years in prison and fined her 2,000 yuan on November 9, 2020. She appealed the verdict with the Wuhan City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original sentence without ever informing her family.
Her family and lawyer later went to Ankang Hospital to visit her, only to be told that she was no longer there. After an arduous search, they confirmed that she had already been transferred to the prison. The guards there refused to allow her family to visit her.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Gao Shang (高尚), prosecutor, Hanyang District Procuratorate: +86-27-84871273Yu Lijin (余立进), presiding judge, Hanyang District Court: +86-27-84586576, +86-18717176086Chen Shiguo (陈仕国), director, Wuhan City 610 Office: +86-27-82402903, +86-27-87403060
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
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