(Minghui.org) A 78-year-old woman in Kunming City, Yunnan Province, was recently admitted to the Yunnan Province Second Women’s Prison for refusing to give up her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. An Shunlian, born in 1948, was sentenced to three and a half years with a 10,000-yuan fine on December 16, 2024. Having been on bail due to poor health since her arrest on August 10, 2023, she was initially allowed to postpone serving time.
On January 12, 2026, the police took Ms. An to a hospital for a physical exam and drove her straight to a detention center afterwards. Some time later they transferred her to the Yunnan Province Second Women’s Prison.
Prior to this latest episode, Ms. An was given two years of forced labor in 2007, sentenced to one year with two years probation in 2007, and given two years with two years probation in 2020. Her husband, Mr. Yang Nengwen, 83, was also repeatedly arrested for practicing Falun Gong. He was sentenced to six months with one year probation following an arrest in 2016.
Ms. An was arrested on August 10, 2023, and released on a one-year house arrest the next morning. The Xishan District Procuratorate indicted her on March 20, 2024. The Xishan District Court scheduled trials for April 10, July 2, and December 4, 2024, but she attended none of them as she felt she should not be prosecuted for being a law-abiding citizen.
Officers Yu and Wang from the Zongshuying Police Station went to Ms. An’s home at 1 p.m. on December 10, 2024. She asked if they were there to take her to the courthouse. They said they were not and called her son, telling him, “We’re taking your mother to the hospital for a physical exam but will bring her home before 6 p.m. tonight.”
When Ms. An got into the police car, she saw officer Luo Xiudong, who was in charge of her case, and another plainclothes officer. They drove her straight to the Xishan District Courthouse. Two clerks were waiting for her to sign a notice agreeing to face a judge on December 16. She refused to sign anything and the clerks left the notice in the police car.
Around 3 p.m., officer Luo produced an arrest warrant issued by the Xishan District Court and formally took Ms. An into custody. After processing her case at the police department, he drove her to the hospital for a physical exam just after 7 p.m.
Ms. An, who was never given the results of the exam, was then taken to the Kunming City Detention Center. The doctor there recommended a more comprehensive exam, so the police took her back to the hospital. She was found to have eye problems requiring further tests. The detention center declined to admit her, but the police held her at the police department overnight.
At 10 a.m. the next morning (December 11), officer Luo and two others took Ms. An to the hospital for a third time. The eye doctor there diagnosed her with macular degeneration and inflammation in both eyes. He said she was legally blind in her right eye and her left eye had a 20/100 vision. Despite this, the police still took Ms. An to the detention center, which again refused to admit her.
On the way back to the police department, Luo said that the court had issued an arrest warrant to ensure Ms. An’s attendance at her scheduled December 16 hearing. He had to take her home in the meantime, because the detention center refused to admit her. He warned her that the court was likely to sentence her to prison and that the prison, unlike the detention center, would have to admit her if she was convicted.
Ms. An was tried on the morning of December 16, 2024. Judge Ping Kunquan sentenced her that afternoon. She appealed the wrongful conviction but it’s unclear if a ruling was issued before her prison admission.
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