(Minghui.org) A Tonghua City, Jilin Province resident was taken to the Jilin Province Women’s Prison on April 29, 2021, after her appeal against a wrongful seven-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong was rejected.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Cao Shulian, 59, was arrested on July 2, 2020, after she was videotaped by urban management officers for handing out Falun Gong informational materials at a breakfast market.
In the afternoon, Ms. Cao was taken to the Tonghua City Detention Center. The police charged her with “disrupting social order” and extorted 1,600 yuan from her family, including a 600-yuan physical examination fee.
The police submitted her case to the Liuhe County Procuratorate. The prosecutor blamed Ms. Cao for being a “repeat offender,” as she was still on probation from a previous term. He threatened to pursue a heavy term against her this time.
As the authorities in Tonghua forbade local lawyers from representing Falun Gong practitioners, her family hired an out-of-town lawyer to represent her. The lawyer was ordered to register with the Tonghua Justice Bureau before he was allowed to visit Ms. Cao, even though the law does not require the involvement of justice bureaus at all.
On November 20, 2020, Ms. Cao’s family was informed by the Liuhe County Court that she had been indicted and the court had received her case. But when her lawyer went to the court on November 23 to review her case document, the court responded that they didn’t have her case in the system. The detention center continued to bar the lawyer from visiting her.
The court held a secret trial and sentenced Ms. Cao to seven years in prison on December 8 without informing her lawyer or family. She appealed the verdict, but the higher court ruled to uphold her sentence.
After she was taken to the prison in April 2021, the authorities haven’t allowed her family to visit her once.
Ms. Cao took up Falun Gong in 2011 and quickly regained her health. For distributing materials about the benefits of practicing Falun Gong, she was arrested on January 17, 2015 and held at the Baishan City Lockup for 15 days.
Ms. Cao was arrested again on November 25, 2015, for distributing calendars with information about Falun Gong. The Liuhe County Court sentenced her to three years in prison with a five-year probation on April 12, 2016.
After she was released from the Tonghua City Detention Center in December 2016, the authorities constantly monitored her daily life and harassed her.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
An Tongyu (安彤宇), head of the Jilin Province Women’s Prison: +86-431-85375031, +86-431-85375001Wei Lihui (魏丽慧), deputy head of the prison: +86-15312692195, +86-431-85375006Qian Wei (钱伟), head of the 8th ward: +86-18504301922Gao Yang (高阳), deputy head of the 8th ward: +86-1850430226
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Related report:Jilin Woman Secretly Sentenced to Seven Years for Her Faith
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Category: Accounts of Persecution
