(Minghui.org) An 85-year-old woman in Maoming City, Guangdong Province has been repeatedly harassed by police in the past two years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. Even after she became bedridden, the authorities still came to her home to deliver a guilty verdict against her.
Between April 21, 2022 and January 20, 2023, Ms. Liao Yuying was harassed four times. The police changed the lock on her front door in June 2022 and kept a key for themselves. To avoid further persecution, Ms. Liao lived away from home, but had to return a month later due to her declining health and systemic pain.
She was bedridden when the police came to harass her again on January 20, 2023, two days before the Chinese New Year. They attempted to carry her away, but then relented due to the severity of her condition.
In March 2023, several officers came again and demanded to take her to the court to sign her case document. She didn’t understand what was happening and burst into tears. Her neighbors heard her cry and came over to check on her. Not wanting her neighbors to see the persecution, the police quickly left.
The police called Ms. Liao’s son two days later and ordered him to pay a 5,000-yuan fine for her. He refused to comply, even after the police repeatedly called him.
The police knocked on Ms. Liao’s door again on April 20. She refused to let them in. On the next morning, after Ms. Liao went out, the police talked to her neighbors and asked them about her situation. The police said they were just visiting her and brought her some bananas. They promised that they wouldn’t arrest her this time.
Moments after Ms. Liao returned home, the police came again and still asked her to go to the court to sign her case document. She insisted that she wouldn’t go.
As the pressure mounted, Ms. Liao suffered severe pain in her legs again and couldn’t get out of bed.
On April 25, several members of the Maonan District Procuratorate forced her son to take them to her home. They announced that she was guilty of having Falun Gong books at her home. In addition to forcing her son to sign her case document on her behalf, they also ordered her son to grab her hand and press her fingerprint on the document. The prosecutor then said that she was allowed to serve time at home. [Note: usually it’s the court’s responsibility to announce verdicts, but the prosecutor may have been asked to pass along the message in this particular case.] Only then did the still bedridden Ms. Liao realize that she had been sentenced. Neither she nor her son were told the details of her sentencing.
Related reports:
84-year-old Woman Harassed for Her Faith, the Fourth Time in a Year
Falun Gong Practitioners in Their 80s Harassed for Their Faith
84-year-old Woman Arrested and Had Her Home Ransacked
Police Break into Elderly Woman’s Home and Change Her Lock Without Her Consent
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