(Minghui.org) An 80-year-old resident of Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, stood trial on September 5, 2024, for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhao Ying was initially arrested on April 26, 2021, and released on bail on May 11 that year. She was put under house arrest after her bail term expired. The police lifted her house arrest in early 2024 but took her back into custody on August 1, 2024. She is currently held at the Tianhe District Detention Center awaiting a verdict.
Ms. Zhao used to be a manager at the Bank of China in Huaian City, Jiangsu Province. She started to practice Falun Gong in January 1997 and credits it for improving her health and mental well-being. After the persecution began in 1999, she was repeatedly arrested for upholding her faith. See the related report for details of her past persecution. She moved to Guangdong Province more than a decade ago.
Ms. Zhao took an out-of-towner to tour the Yimengyuan Apartment Complex in Tianhe District on April 26, 2021, and was seized by two men as she stepped outside. She thought they were robbers but they said they were from the Tangxia Police Station. She refused to go with them and they called in more officers. Together they carried her into their cruiser and took her to the police station. They searched her bag and found her key. They ransacked her home that evening, when her husband, who has Alzheimer’s disease and is in his 80s, was at home alone.
When the police took her for a physical exam, she was found to have a severe medical condition, but they still managed to get her admitted to the Tianhe District Detention Center. Five days later the police took her to the Guangzhou City Eight Hospital and she was placed on a floor known to locals as the “police hospital.”
Ms. Zhao was released on bail on May 11, 2021. She received a call from the Haizhu District Procuratorate on July 24, 2022, saying that they’ve received her case. Her family then got a call on December 8 that year and was told she had been indicted.
Wei Xiaoming and Liu Jiayuan from the Haizhu District Court delivered a hard copy of the indictment to Ms. Zhao on February 22, 2023. The indictment listed two pieces of prosecution evidence: 1) she placed a Falun Gong brochure in the basket of an e-bike outside the E2 building in the Tangyayuan subdivision in Tianhe District on April 21, 2021, and 2) she rode her bike to the Yimengyuan Apartment Complex in Tianhe District on April 26, 2021, and intended to distribute Falun Gong flyers there. The flyers were allegedly in her bag which was placed in the bike basket.
It dawned on Ms. Zhao that the police had been monitoring her before her arrest on April 26, 2021; otherwise, they would not have known she was at Yimengyuan Apartment Complex that day. However, she never owned a bike to begin with nor did she know how to ride a bike. As for the alleged prosecution evidence #1, she never went to Tangyayuan subdivision on the said day, much less placing a brochure in an e-bike basket. Wei and Liu refused to show proof of the prosecution evidence.
In March 2023, Ms. Zhao entrusted a relative to serve as her non-lawyer defender. The defender went to the Haizhu District Court but was barred from reviewing her case file. The court later harassed her numerous times and ordered her to show up in court to stand trial or have them come to her home to hold a hearing of her case. She said no to both.
The Tianhe District Police Department officers took Ms. Zhao back into custody on August 1, 2024, and put her in the Tianhe District Detention Center. She was made to stand trial on September 5. Details of her hearing aren’t available at the time of writing.