(Minghui.org) A Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province resident has been denied family visits since she was admitted to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison (located in the capital city of Jinan) on January 13, 2023.
Ms. Zhao Youqin was arrested on June 2, 2021 during a police sweep. She was getting ready to go to work that day when she was arrested at the parking lot in her residential complex. The police raided her home and took her to the Zhongyun Police Station before transferring her to the Pudong Detention Center in Qingdao City, Shandong Province. (Jiaozhou is under the jurisdiction of Qingdao.)
At least 19 other local Falun Gong practitioners were arrested on the same day, including Mr. Yu Baiqing, Ms. Song Guiqin, Ms. Gao Xiu’e, Mr. Huang Yuqiang, Mr. Ji Jinmu, Ms. Wang Ruilian, Ms. Wang Ruilan, Ms. Zhang Meixiang, Ms. Song Jihua, Ms. Zhuang Zuojie, Ms. Ji Hong, Ms. Zhou Ruiling, Ms. Liang Huiyuan, Ms. Sun Yuyun, Mr. Ye Yu, Mr. Wang Shujin, Mr. Cheng Jiqing, Ms. Jiao Qing’e, and her husband Mr. Xu Yanzhong. More than 100 police officers were dispatched for the operation.
The Huangdao District Court in Jiaozhou City sentenced Mr. Yu to eight years with a 50,000-yuan fine on April 15, 2022, and Ms. Zhao to 3.5 years on April 24 that year.
Due to the pandemic, Ms. Zhao remained at the Pudong Detention Center after the sentencing. After the lockdown was lifted in December 2022, her family was allowed to visit her twice. When they asked to see her for a third time, they were told that she had been transferred to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison on January 13, 2023. The prison promised to grant them visitation in three months, but they still have not been allowed to see her nine months later.
The prison once dispatched a person to Ms. Zhao’s home in Jiaozhou City and told her family that she did not want to see them. The messenger said he was there to ask her family to “work on” her so that she would consent to family visits. The same messenger later called her family and expressed similar ideas. However, a different person from the prison called the family to say that they didn’t allow family visits because Ms. Zhao had not renounced Falun Gong.
Ms. Zhao’s family was baffled as to what exactly was the reason for denying family visits with her. The mixed messages from the prison only made them even more worried about her well-being. Her mother, nearly 90, still does not know about her imprisonment as her family withheld the news for fear that the elderly woman may not be able to cope.
Related reports:
Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province: 16 Falun Gong Practitioners Arrested in One Day
Shandong Man Given Eight Years and a Heavy Fine for His Faith
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