Grandmother Given 3.5 Years for Giving Out Materials about Falun Gong

(Minghui.org) A native of Weifang City, Shandong Province was recently ordered to serve 3.5 years in the nearby Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, for giving out informational materials about her faith in Falun Gong.

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

Ms. Yu Lanfang, 55, moved in with her daughter in Suzhou in 2020 to help care for her grandson. At 6 a.m. on January 28, 2021, five plainclothes officers broke in and arrested her. Her two-year-old grandson was terrified and had a high fever for three days.

At Fengqiao Police Station, the police twisted Ms. Yu’s arms behind her back, pressed her body and head against the wall, and took photos of her. They next cuffed her to a metal chair for over 30 hours. By the time she was let down, her legs had become so swollen that she couldn’t walk. When she had to use the restroom, she could only slowly inch forward while leaning against the wall.

While interrogating her, the police kept threatening her with lengthy prison sentences, but she refused to comply.

Ms. Yu was released on bail on March 4, after 36 days of detention. The police later submitted her case to the Wujiang District Procuratorate, which then indicted her and moved her case to the Wujiang District Court.

Ms. Yu’s daughter was informed on May 31, 2022, that she was scheduled to appear in court on June 14. The younger woman hired a lawyer for Ms. Yu. The lawyer entered a not-guilty plea for her during the hearing.

The court announced Ms. Yu’s verdict on September 29. Given the fact that she was previously sentenced to three years with four years probation by a Shandong Court in 2016 for putting up information about Falun Gong, the judge suspended her probation and ordered her to serve the three-year term, even though the probation had long expired. He also gave her a new prison sentence of one year as punishment following her latest arrest. As she had already been incarcerated for a total of six months following her 2016 arrest and the latest arrest, the combined 4-year sentence was adjusted to 3.5 years.

Police officer Huang Haipeng took Ms. Yu back into custody right after the trial. She is now held at the Fengqiao Police Station.

Past Persecution

Ms. Yu took up Falun Gong in 1998. For upholding her faith, she has been repeatedly targeted by the communist regime in the past 23 years.

Ms. Yu was arrested in 2000 when she went to Beijing to appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong. The police beat her legs with rubber sticks. Her legs were covered with bruises and she passed out due to the pain.

While on a business trip in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province on June 14, 2006, Ms. Yu was arrested in her hotel, after the Nanjing police found her carrying Falun Gong books and materials. She was given one year at the Judong Women’s Forced Labor Camp.

Ms. Yu was arrested again on February 22, 2016, for putting up a poster about the wave of criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime who ordered the persecution. She was held at the Weifang City Detention Center and her arrest was approved on March 29. She was released on bail on September 14. The High-tech Industrial Development Zone Court sentenced her to three years with four years probation and a 5,000-yuan fine on September 27, 2016.

Perpetrators’ contact information:

Liu Lipeng (刘丽鹏), judge, Wujiang District Court: [phone]Huang Xiufeng (黄秀峰), prosecutor of Wujiang District Procuratorate: [phone]Huang Haipeng (黄海鹏), officer, Fengqiao Police Station: [phone]Jiang Dawei (蒋大伟), officer, Fengqiao Police Station

Related report:

Woman Stands Trial for Distributing Information about Her Faith