(Minghui.org) A 73-year-old woman in Shanghai was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2023 for her faith in Falun Gong. Due to her health, she was repeatedly denied admission by the local detention center. The court ruled on June 12, 2026, to have her serve the time at home. Her term is expected to end in September 2027.
Ms. Zhao Chuanmei’s ordeal began when she was arrested in September 2022 after a young man reported her to the police for talking to him about Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She failed the physical exam for detention and was released on a one-year bail.
A Fengxian District Court official called her on April 12, 2023, to tell her that prosecutor Shen Wei of the Pudong New District Procuratorate had indicted her. Shen accused her of being a repeat offender based on her 10-month sentence in 2020 for practicing Falun Gong. He recommended a heavy sentence.
On June 28, 2023, the Fengxian District Court sentenced Ms. Zhao to 15 months. Because she had dangerously high blood pressure and a lump in her breast, the detention center refused to take her. She was thus released and ordered to report to the police station whenever summoned. The police forced her to submit to several more physical exams in an attempt to jail her, but she was never approved.
At another physical exam on March 12, 2025, Ms. Zhao was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis and a systolic blood pressure twice as high as normal. Just two weeks later, on March 26, the police took Ms. Zhao to the hospital for two CT scans. The doctor withheld the results from her and her family except to say that she’d had a stroke.
On June 12, 2026, the Pudong New District Court, which wasn’t the court that initially sentenced Ms. Zhao, ordered her to start serving time at home. Her term is expected to end in September 2027.
Past Persecution
On July 31, 2012, Ms. Zhao was arrested for talking to people about Falun Gong. Her home was ransacked and she was held in the Zhangjiang Detention Center.
Five officers from the Zhangjiang Police Station broke into Ms. Zhao’s home on December 17, 2019, and took her to the Zhangjiang Detention Center. She was issued a formal arrest warrant on January 22, 2020, and appeared in the Fengxian District Court on August 25, 2020. She was sentenced to ten months with a 2,000-yuan fine. She was released on October 16, 2020.
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