(Minghui.org) A Dandong City, Liaoning Province, resident was taken to the Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on February 21, 2023, to serve a three-year term for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Pan Jing was arrested on September 3, 2021, while hosting a birthday party for her then-89-year-old mother. Although the prosecutor dismissed her case on September 17, claiming that “there was not enough evidence to show how Ms. Pan was a danger to society,” the police resubmitted her case to the procuratorate a year later.
Ms. Pan was taken back into custody on September 19, 2022, and stood trial at the Zhen’an District Court on October 19. The judge attempted to force her to renounce Falun Gong by promising to give her a lighter sentence, but she refused to comply. The authorities kept her at the Dandong City Detention Center and refused to release her to take care of her mother.
As Ms. Pan’s brother and his wife didn’t have the capacity to care for her mother, they had to take her to a senior living center. Due to lack of care, the elderly woman developed bedsores and also contracted COVID-19. She was rushed to the hospital for resuscitation on December 24, 2022, and passed away on December 31.
The judge sentenced Ms. Pan to three years in prison with a 5,000 yuan fine. She appealed the verdict, but the higher court ruled to uphold her original verdict.
Before Ms. Pan was taken to prison on February 21, 2023, her family was allowed to visit her at the detention center. They said she was very thin, after being on a hunger strike since last December to protest the persecution. She was carried out by two inmates and had a feeding tube in her nose.
Ms. Pan is currently held at the 12th ward in the prison, which has been designated as a correction ward, where Falun Gong practitioners are subjected to brutal torture aimed to force them to renounce their faith.
Related reports:
Ongoing Torture of Falun Gong Practitioners in Liaoning Province Women’s Prison
90-year-old Mother Dies in Distress, One Year After Daughter’s Arrest at Her 89th Birthday Party
“I Will Give You a Lighter Sentence If You Renounce Falun Gong”
Liaoning Woman Released on Bail After 15 Days of Detention
Liaoning Woman and Four Guests Arrested While Celebrating Her Mother’s 89-year Birthday
Ms. Pan Jing Has Been Cruelly and Repeatedly Persecuted by the Communist Regime