(Minghui.org) A woman in Shanghai filed a motion to reconsider her case after serving a second prison term (3.5 years). She sought to have the wrongful conviction expunged from her record because she should never have been jailed for practicing Falun Gong, which has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party for a quarter century.
In retaliation against Ms. Li Hong’s efforts, the police arrested her nine months after she mailed her motion, eventually leading to her third prison term, a one-year sentence, in late July 2023.
Ms. Li, a 48-year-old accountant for a software company, took up Falun Gong in 2005. She was first arrested on the evening of July 16, 2008 while distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. The arresting officers from Songjiang District Police Department confiscated her computer, printer, DVD burner, and Falun Gong materials.
The Songjiang District Procuratorate indicted Ms. Li two months later on September 12. She was sentenced to 3.5 years by the Songjiang District Court on January 7, 2009. She appealed with the Shanghai City No. 1 Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict on March 23, 2009.
Ms. Li was transferred from the Songjiang District Detention Center to the Shanghai Women’s Prison on May 5, 2009. She was subjected to relentless torture and brainwashing, aimed to force her to renounce her faith. After spending 30 months of hellish days in the prison, she was released on November 15, 2011.
Ms. Li was arrested again early on the morning of June 13, 2017, by officers from the Xuhui District Domestic Security Office and Hunan Road Police Station. The police accused her of publishing articles about Falun Gong on social media.
The Xuhui District Court sentenced Ms. Li to 3.5 years with a 10,000-yuan fine on April 11, 2018. Her appeal was again rejected by the Shanghai City No. 1 Intermediate Court. Her family tried to hire a lawyer to file a motion to reconsider her case, but were met with obstructions from the authorities.
Ms. Li was transferred to the Shanghai Women’s Prison in August 2018 and released on December 12, 2020.
On December 19, 2021, a year after her prison release, Ms. Li decided to mail the motion to reconsider her case with the Shanghai City No. 1 Intermediate Court. She demanded that the higher court acquit her, and also sought the return of her Falun Gong books confiscated by the police. She was notified on January 4, 2022 by the appeals court that her case had been accepted.
Before the appeals court held a hearing of Ms. Li’s case, officers of the Caoyang Police Station in Putuo District arrested her, on September 9, 2022. Her arrest was approved by the Putuo District Procuratorate on October 15. According to information collected by her lawyer, the Putuo District Procuratorate and Putuo District Police Station were trying to sentence Ms. Li, in order to scare other practitioners and prevent them from filing motions to reconsider their wrongful prison terms.
Ms. Li’s case was later transferred to the Jing’an District. Judges Gong Wen and Gong Xulong announced her one-year prison sentence and 2,000-yuan fine during her court session on July 28, 2023. She was accused of mailing four documents about Falun Gong to the Putuo District Court, Caoyang New Village Street Committee, Shanghai Railway Transport Court, and Huangpu District Court.
Ms. Li is still being held at the Putuo District Detention Center at the time of this writing. She has appealed the latest prison sentence.
Related report:
Firsthand Account: Torture and Brainwashing in a Shanghai Prison
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