(Minghui.org) A woman in Deyang City, Sichuan Province is facing trial for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Li Anying’s family has frequented the local police station and procuratorate in the past three months to seek justice for her, only to be given the run-around and stonewalled, before they found out their loved one has been indicted.
Ms. Li was arrested on June 26, 2019, for talking to an elderly woman about Falun Gong. The police ransacked her home around noon and took her to Deyang City Detention Center in the afternoon.
Ms. Li’s family went to the police station following her arrest and demanded her release. The police referred them to the Domestic Security Division, claiming that they weren’t in charge of the case.
The Domestic Security Division officers said that they were very busy and didn’t have time to meet with Ms. Li's family. They said they would follow the legal procedure and asked Ms. Li’s family to go back and wait for further notification.
Ms. Li’s family wrote several letters to the Domestic Security Division officers and told them how Falun Gong had changed Ms. Li's life. She had myriad illnesses but couldn’t afford medical treatment. Shortly after she took up Falun Gong in 1999, her symptoms disappeared and she became a more considerate and kind person.
For holding firm to her faith, she has been repeatedly arrested, detained and tortured. She was on the verge of death when she was released from a labor camp in 2006. She regained her health only after she resumed practicing Falun Gong. Her family asked in letters to the authorities that Ms. Li had done nothing wrong by practicing Falun Gong and should not be imprisoned for talking to people about it.
While the officers from the Domestic Security Division never responded to the letters, they secretly submitted Ms. Li’s case to the procuratorate without informing her family.
After Ms. Li’s family found out about it, they went to look for the officers, who refused to meet with them and ordered security to block them from entering the station.
Ms. Li’s family went to Jingyang District Procuratorate on September 26, 2019, to submit a document demanding the prosecutor to investigate the police officers’ legal violations in arresting their loved one and holding her in custody for her faith. They also demanded the prosecutor to withdraw Ms. Li’s case and release her.
As security personnel at the procuratorate also blocked Ms. Li’s family from entering, they waited at the entrance for a long time before Liu Zhian, the head of the indictment department, came out. The family gave the document to Liu, but he refused to take it, saying that the procuratorate hadn’t received Ms. Li’s case yet.
Her family explained that they were submitting the request ahead of time, but no matter how Ms. Li’s family talked to him, Liu insisted that they wouldn’t accept the document and said he had seen enough of such things.
Ms. Li’s family called Zhang Han, the head of the Domestic Security Division, in October and requested to meet with him. Zhang refused and asked them not to call him again as the case had already arrived at the procuratorate.
Ms. Li’s family then went to the procuratorate to inquire about the case. The front desk staff told them that their computer system was broken and would take weeks to fix.
Ms. Li’s family later found out that prosecutor Li Hai (no relation to Ms. Li) had been assigned to oversee her case. They tried to make an appointment with prosecutor Li but were told that he wasn’t in the office. They returned to the procuratorate several times, but prosecutor Li never met with them.
Ms. Li’s family returned to the procuratorate and demanded to meet with prosecutor Li on November 20, only to be told that Ms. Li had already been indicted and her case had been submitted to the Jingyang District Court two days before. Judge Luo Hui has been assigned to the case.