(Minghui.org) A Zhumadian City, Henan Province resident was taken to the Xinxiang Women’s Prison in early May 2021 to serve a seven-year prison term for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Yan Weibin, a 55-year-old hotel manager, was arrested on July 16, 2020 after being reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong. She was held at the Zhumadian City Detention Center and her arrest was approved on July 31.
An insider revealed to Ms. Yan’s family that the central communist regime government was aware of Ms. Yan’s case and ordered the local court to hand down a heavy prison term. With the ongoing “Zero-out” harassment campaign, a concerted effort to force every Falun Gong practitioner on the government’s blacklist to renounce Falun Gong, the authorities attempted to intimidate other practitioners with the heavy term against Ms. Yan.
Ms. Yan was secretly tried by the Yicheng District Court on October 14, 2020. The judge revealed in the hearing that he was receiving many phone calls from overseas Falun Gong practitioners, who urged him not to sentence Ms. Yan. He recorded one of the phone calls and played it during the hearing. He asked Ms. Yan why he was receiving such phone calls and blamed her for threatening him.
The judge held another hearing in November 2020, before sentencing her to seven years on December 9. Her family appealed with the Zhumadian City Intermediate Court, which ruled to uphold her original verdict.
Ms. Yan took up Falun Gong in 1997 and credits the practice for improving her health. At home, she took care of her elderly mother-in-law and bedridden father. At work, she always tried her best to help others and her colleagues and managers all spoke highly of her.
After the communist regime ordered the persecution, Ms. Yan was arrested twice for going to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. She was given one year at the Tuanhe Forced Labor Camp following her second arrest on March 5, 2000.
Prior to her latest ordeal, Ms. Yan was arrested one more time on August 2, 2019 and held at the Zhumadian City Detention Center for 15 days.
Henan Resident Sentenced to Seven Years for Her Faith
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Zhang Chuansheng (张传生), head of Xinxiang Women’s Prison: +86-13735092601Hou Meili (侯美丽), deputy prison head: +86-13735092603Yu Haijian (余海建), deputy prison head: +86-13735092605Li (李某), 610 Office agent: +86-13523878416
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)