(Minghui.org) The Yanqing District Court in Beijing recently notified Ms. Zhang Lianyu’s husband that they would “check in on his wife soon.” He immediately knew that they were attempting again to put his wife in jail.
Ms. Zhang, who resides in Yanqing District, was sentenced to four and a half years and fined 90,000 yuan in June 2024, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Zhang, who has been out on bail since her initial arrest in 2018, was told in September 2024 to have a physical exam to prepare for prison admission. She was deemed unfit for detention. The court made many more failed attempts in the next two years to send her to prison. It is unclear when the court would order her to have another physical exam after calling her husband most recently.
Ms. Zhang is not the only local facing the risk of being incarcerated. Another Yanqing resident, Ms. Fan Jirong, was sentenced to four years for practicing Falun Gong by the Changping District Court in Beijing. Her appeal was rejected on March 10, 2021, but she was allowed to serve time at home due because of her health. She died on February 15, 2024. Eight days later, a clerk from the Yanqing District Court delivered a copy of her verdict to her home, even though the court was not involved in her prosecution. It was unclear whether the verdict was her original four-year sentence or the appeals court’s ruling.
Ms. Zhang’s Arrest
On May 14, 2018, two plainclothes officers from the Xiadu Police Station went to Ms. Zhang’s home. One of them talked to her while the other walked around. When he noticed a printer and a picture of the founder of Falun Gong, the second officer immediately called for backup. They ignored Ms. Zhang when she demanded to see their IDs. They raided her home and confiscated her Falun Gong books.
After they ransacked her home for five hours, the police took Ms. Zhang and the confiscated items to the Xiadu Police Station. They drove her to their supervising agency, the Yanqing District Police Department, at midnight. Two hours later, they transferred her to the Changping District Detention Center. She was denied admission after she failed the required physical exam. The police took her back to the Xiadu Police Station at 6 a.m. on May 15, 2018. She was released on bail at noon.
Afterwards, the police kept harassing Ms. Zhang at home, attempting to make her renounce her faith. Ms. Zhang had no choice but to live away from home. Her health declined and she eventually returned home. As soon as the police heard she was back, they sped up prosecuting her.
Officer Liu Xinxing from the Xiadu Police Station, prosecutor Liu Xueyan from the Yanqing District Procuratorate, and judge Li Shuang and her clerk from the Yanqing District Court visited her on October 23, 2019, to tell her that she had been indicted and a court date was scheduled for November 14 that year.
It was unclear whether the hearing on November 14, 2019, ever took place. But Ms. Zhang was later arrested in June 2021 and detained briefly.
Court Used Deceit to Change Probation Term to 4.5-Year Prison Sentence
Judge Li led several people to Ms. Zhang’s home on May 15, 2024. They promised her husband to only give her a one year prison sentence if he cooperated with them in holding a hearing at his home. Eager to protect his wife, Ms. Zhang’s husband persuaded her to do the at-home trial in order to get a lighter sentence.
Judge Li sentenced Ms. Zhang to one year in prison with two years probation at the end of the hearing. She refused to sign the court proceedings, so her husband signed it on her behalf as he was still led to believe that he had to cooperate in order to “seal” the lighter sentence.
A clerk delivered an official verdict to Ms. Zhang’s home on May 28, 2024. Her husband received it and immediately hid it without reading the content. He thought it was the same one-year-term-with-two-year-probation. He did not want his wife to see the verdict and do anything to protest it.
The court notified Ms. Zhang in September 2024 to have a physical exam in preparation for prison admission. Her husband was shocked, because he thought she would only need to serve a probationary term as promised. The court reminded him that his wife had actually been sentenced to four and a half years and fined 9,000 yuan. He then took out the official verdict and saw it was not the light sentence as he thought it was.
Related Reports:
Beijing Court Uses Deceit to Change Woman's Probation Term to 4.5-Year Prison Sentence
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