(Minghui.org) A woman in Gaozhou City, Guangdong Province, is in precarious condition while in custody for her faith in Falun Gong, but the authorities barred her lawyer from visiting her and refused to provide updates about her current condition. The local procuratorate has indicted her and moved her case to the court for prosecution.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Wu Youqing, 55, was arrested when she went out on the evening of September 26, 2022. She was put on criminal detention on September 28 and taken to the Xinyi City Detention Center. Because she did the Falun Gong exercises on October 4, the guards shackled her. The shackles were still on when her lawyer visited her on October 11.
On October 23, a detention center guard called Ms. Wu’s family and said she had been on a hunger strike for five days. The guard urged them to apply for Ms. Wu’s release on medical bail. With the lawyer’s help, her family prepared a medical bail application. But when they went to the Gaozhou City Police Department to submit it, the police refused to accept the document.
Although the police accepted their application the next day, they rejected it a day later, claiming that Ms. Wu’s condition had stabilized and that she wasn’t qualified for medical release.
The lawyer went to the detention center on October 25 to visit Ms. Wu, but the guard on duty, who claimed that the lawyer had passed a high-risk COVID-19 area on his way there, turned him away. The lawyer argued that he would only be meeting Ms. Wu through a video call and had no way of transmitting the virus, but the guard still forced him to undergo two days of quarantine before allowing him to talk to Ms. Wu on October 28.
According to the lawyer, Ms. Wu was very weak and couldn’t speak clearly after 11 days on a hunger strike. She also vomited several times during the meeting.
That same day, the police deceived Ms. Wu’s family into signing a document stating that her physical condition didn’t qualify her for release on medical bail.
Ms. Wu’s family called the detention center on November 10 and was told that the guards had taken her to the hospital for intravenous feeding. Her condition was stable, but she still refused to eat.
The family learned on November 21 that Ms. Wu had been transferred to the Maoming City No. 1 Detention Center, one day before the police submitted her case to the Maonan District Procuratorate in Maoming City. But after being on a hunger strike for one month, she was having problems with her digestive system and vomited when she ate.
Both Ms. Wu’s hometown of Gaozhou City and Xinyi City, where she was first detained, are under the administration of Maoming City.
The police called Ms. Wu’s family on November 24 and said she was in serious condition and had been taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. They refused to let the family visit her, but ordered them to pay for two albumin injections (about 1,000 yuan), which is usually used to treat shock following serious injury and to increase blood plasma.
The family initially refused to pay for the injection and insisted on holding the police accountable for her condition, but they later relented, fearing the further deterioration of her condition.
Prosecutor Dai Jianlan of the Maonan District Procuratorate indicted Ms. Wu on November 25 and moved her case to the Maonan District Court. A judge surnamed Pan was assigned to handle her case.
Ms. Wu’s lawyer went to the detention center on November 29 to drop off the Power of Attorney for her to sign. On his way back, the Maoming City Disease Prevention Center claimed that the pooling sample of his COVID test was positive and they ordered him to stay in a hotel for a five-day quarantine.
After the quarantine ended on December 4, the lawyer went to the detention center again to visit Ms. Wu, only to be told she had been taken to the hospital again.
The lawyer then went to the hospital. An officer surnamed Li took his Power of Attorney inside to have Ms. Wu sign it. But the officer refused to allow the lawyer to visit Ms. Wu, with the excuse that the hospital didn’t have provisions for a video meeting. The police also refused to provide an update about Ms. Wu’s condition. Her family is now very worried about her.
Since the Chinese Communist Party ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, Ms. Wu has been repeatedly targeted for her faith. She served three years of forced labor and four years in prison. Even after she returned home after surviving the relentless torture, the local authorities still constantly harassed her and attempted to force her to renounce her faith.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Dai Jianlan (戴建兰), prosecutor, Maonan District Procuratorate: +86-13580018183Chen Fei (陈飞), officer, Gaozhou City Domestic Security OfficeLiang Shuang (梁爽), director of Gaozhou City Domestic Security Office: +86-13824877688Liang Yongquan (梁永全), deputy secretary of Maoming City Political and Legal Affairs Committee: +86-18666833888Huang Shu (黄姝), officer, Gaozhou City 610 Office: +86-13702661551
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Related reports:
Guangdong Woman in Serious Condition After Being Denied Medical Bail During Month-long Hunger Strike
Six Falun Gong Practitioners Harassed Prior to Mid-Autumn Festival in Guangdong Province
Inhuman Persecution at Guangdong Women's Prison
Four Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in Guangdong Province
Family Member Warns Presiding Judge, “You Will Be Held Responsible”
Falun Gong Practitioners in Guangdong Province Convicted on Falsified Evidence
Three Falun Gong Practitioners Illegally Tried in Guangdong Province
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