(Minghui.org) Ms. Yang Zuojuan, 59, from Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province, has been denied family visits after she was sent to prison on September 2, 2023 to serve a two-year term for practicing her faith, Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Yang Zuojuan was arrested on May 19, 2022, after being reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong about a month before. She was released on bail later that afternoon. The Zhaoyuan City Procuratorate indicted her on March 23, 2023. The Zhaoyuan City Court heard her case on June 13 but the presiding judge did not allow her to testify in her own defense.
Ms. Yang was taken back into custody right after the court hearing but was released again on June 20 because she failed the physical examination required for detention.
The judge sentenced Ms. Yang to two years with a 5,000-yuan fine on August 3, 2023. Li Yujie and three other officers of the Zhaoyuan City Domestic Security Office took her to the Shandong Province Women’s Prison on September 2.
Even though the prison policy grants inmates once-a-month in person visits with their families, Ms. Yang has not been allowed to meet with her loved ones since she was sent to prison. She wore thin summer clothes when she was taken into custody and she did not have any money. Because her family isn’t allowed to make cash deposits so she can buy things in the prison, they are worried whether she has enough clothes to keep her warm in the winter. Her 85-year-old mother is especially worried about her health, because in June 2023, the local detention center refused to admit her due to her poor health.
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