75-year-old Woman Jailed on Fabricated Charge, Continues to Face Harassment After Being Released

(Minghui.org) A 75-year-old Changsha City, Hunan Province, resident was arrested on November 29, 2021 for her faith in Falun Gong. She was sentenced to ten months on June 29, 2022. The police have continued to harass her daily since her release on September 28.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Below is Ms. Xia Jingze’s own account of the persecution she has suffered over the past year.

Sentenced to Ten Months

Someone knocked on my door on November 29, 2021. He claimed to be from the residential committee and had come to deliver a new year’s gift to me. I refused to open the door, but the man wouldn’t leave. 

As soon as I opened the door, three plainclothes officers barged in. They introduced themselves as officers from the Guihuaping Police Station and ordered me to go with them. 

They said that someone found two Falun Gong posters on the utility pole near the Tianxin District Government building on November 17 and that they believed it was me who did it because the surveillance camera had recorded me passing there. 

I denied ever putting up the posters, and said that the fact that I passed by that area didn’t mean that I also put up the posters.

Without a search warrant, they began to ransack my home. I tried to stop them from taking my Falun Gong books away. They relented, but ordered me to go with them to answer some questions, promising to send me home in the afternoon. I realized later on that they still took my books behind my back and used the books as evidence to prosecute me. 

I refused to answer the interrogation at the police station. They kept asking me the same questions and tried to force me to admit that I put up the posters. I remained silent. They later locked me in a small room. 

In the evening, an officer surnamed Cao told me that his supervisor said my case was complicated and that they decided to give me 15 days at the Changsha City No. 4 Detention Center. 

Fifteen days later, three officers came to interrogate me again. They said that as long as I pleaded guilty, they would release me. 

“I didn’t violate any law and I have no guilt to admit to,” I said to them. They handed me a pre-filled arrest approval notice and ordered me to sign it. I refused.

My case was transferred to the Yuhua District Police Department in February 2022. When the officers talked to me about my case, I demanded they uphold justice, but they still submitted my case to the Yuhua District Procuratorate. 

I received a copy of my indictment issued by prosecutor Jiang Xiaoming of the Yuhua District Procuratorate on March 10. I wrote to the prosecutor and the presiding judge, Yang Yong, requesting them to review the fabricated allegations against me, but they ignored my request.

When I was tried by the Yuhua District Court on June 29, my family wasn’t allowed to attend the trial. Judge Yang spoke first, followed by prosecutor Jiang. Jiang talked so fast and his voice was so low that I couldn’t hear him clearly. When it was my turn, judge Yang stopped me after I'd only said a few sentences and then didn’t allow me to talk anymore. Then my lawyer entered a not guilty plea for me. At the end of the trial, the judge sentenced me to ten months with a 4,000-yuan fine. 

Continued Harassment

My term expired on September 28, 2022, and my son took me home. Before we arrived home, Yang Zhiqing, a community police officer, called my son but he didn’t answer the call. 

Shortly after we arrived home at around 10 a.m., Yang showed up and knocked on the door. My son didn’t open the door for him. Yang called him again and he still didn’t answer. Then Dai Zhengwu, another community officer, texted my son and demanded to visit me. My son replied, “My mom just came back. She is very tired and doesn’t feel well. She won’t meet with anyone.”

A few days later on October 8, Yang called my son again, ordering me to report to the police station or he would come to my home. My son refused to get involved. 

Wang Wa, the community secretary, knocked on my door in the afternoon. When I was about to open the door, someone else banged on the door. I suspected that it was police officer Yang, so I didn’t open the door. He kept banging for a while and left. He left a note on the door, asking me to see him at the police station the next day. 

Yang came again the next morning. As I still refused to open the door for him, he turned off my power supply. He also called my son, threatening to break into my home if I didn’t open the door for him the next time. My son questioned him for violating the law in trespassing onto a private residence. Yang hung up on him. 

Community officers Wang and Dai came to my home in the afternoon. They said that as the 20th Party Congress would be held between October 16 and 22, they ordered me not to go out to put up Falun Gong posters during that period, or they would arrest me and put me in jail again. They also threatened that my children’s jobs would be affected and my grandchildren wouldn’t be admitted to a university. 

I said that I wouldn’t promise anything to them. We Falun Gong practitioners all follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and we are law-abiding citizens. They took a picture of my home to show that they had indeed come to my home and then left. 

Between October 15 and 21, either Yang or Dai harassed me every day. Yang texted my son, “I heard your mom didn’t agree not to go out to pass out flyers. It means that she would still do so in the future. You’d better tell her, there are surveillance cameras everywhere and I know everywhere she goes. If she distributes the flyers again, she will be arrested and jailed for another three or five years. She’d better be prepared.”

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Yang Zhiqing (杨志清), police officer: [phone]Dai Zhengwu (戴正午), community officer: [phone]Wang Wa (王娲), residential committee secretary: [phone]

Related report:

Changsha, Hunan Province: 15 Face Trial, a 16th Has Been Imprisoned, All for Their Shared Faith