(Minghui.org) Ms. Yang Qiaoli from Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province was tried on August 29, 2024 for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
The prosecutor in charge of the case recommended that Ms. Yang be sentenced to six years in prison. She is currently held at the Tongchuan City Detention Center and is waiting to hear the verdict.
The Yintai District Domestic Security Division was responsible for Ms. Yang’s arrest. They targeted her after receiving a tip in mid-November 2023 that there were Falun Gong informational materials posted in town. Even though it’s not clear if Ms. Yang put up the materials, the police arrested her on January 9, 2024.
The police also raided Ms. Yang’s two residences and confiscated four computers, three printers, more than 80 Falun Gong books, multiple flash drives, cell phones, and about 10,000 in yuan in cash (7,000 yuan of which had information about Falun Gong printed on it). Because all legal channels to appeal for Falun Gong have been blocked, practitioners use creative ways to raise awareness of the persecution, such as printing messages on paper currency.
Officer Liu Xuan knocked Ms. Yang down and beat her during the arrest. He and other officers did not issue a receipt for the confiscated cash and later said the money would be used for her physical examination. They then placed her in criminal detention at the Tongchuan City Detention Center.
Guard Liu Xiaohu and section chief Yang Bowen beat Ms. Yang with a stick in areas of the building where there were no surveillance cameras, after she failed to recite the detention center rules. They did not stop beating her until another guard asked them to.
Ms. Yang was issued a formal arrest warrant on February 8, 2024. Two of her siblings were arrested on February 18 when they sought her release. They were each detained for 15 days.
Ms. Zhao later hired a lawyer in Beijing to defend her innocence. The lawyer submitted a request to not indict her to prosecutor Gao Guanghua of the Yintai District Procuratorate. He also included official publications attesting to two crucial facts: Falun Gong was never on the government’s cult list and the ban on Falun Gong publications was lifted years ago.
Gao refused to accept this and asked the lawyer if he agreed that Falun Gong was a cult. The lawyer replied that Gao should refer to the publications and the fact that no law in China has ever criminalized Falun Gong or labeled it a cult. Gao then called the lawyer’s law firm in Beijing and asked if he was employed there and whether he handled Falun Gong cases before.
Captain Fu Hongan of the Yintai District Domestic Security Division later filed a complaint against the lawyer and his law firm with the Beijing Judicial Bureau for daring to get involved in Falun Gong cases.
Judge Jiang Yanqing of the Yintai District Court denied Ms. Zhao’s request to have a relative serve as her non-lawyer defender. Her sister and brother were not allowed to attend her trial on August 29, 2024. The two siblings stayed outside the courtroom during the hearing, and the police avoided them when they took Ms. Zhao away after the trial.
Shaanxi Woman Detained for Practicing Falun Gong, Two Siblings Arrested for Seeking Her Release