(Minghui.org) A 68-year-old Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province resident was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison for her faith in Falun Gong. She filed an appeal with the Nanjing City Intermediate Court on November 4, 2022, seeking an acquittal and the return of the Falun Gong related materials confiscated from her.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Zhang Yanyan, a retired senior information engineer, was arrested on September 9, 2021, after being reported for distributing informational materials about Falun Gong in a residential area. Her Falun Gong books, informational materials, computer, and printer were confiscated.
The police put Ms. Zhang on one-year bail with the charge of “undermining law enforcement with a cult organization,” a standard pretext used to frame Falun Gong practitioners. She paid a 2,000-yuan bail bond.
Because Ms. Zhang refused to renounce Falun Gong, the police submitted her case to the Xuanwu District Procuratorate on February 21, 2022. She was indicted shortly afterwards and stood trial in Xuanwu District Court on June 7.
The court called Ms. Zhang on October 24, ordering her to report to them on October 27 for an interview. She was also required to undergo daily COVID-19 tests before the interview. The police called her later, demanding to know her test results. She refused to comply.
Ms. Zhang went to the court at the required time on October 27, only to be held by three police officers. Xu Mengjiao, the court clerk, handed a stack of paperwork to her and told her that she had been sentenced to 1.5 years and fined 15,000 yuan. Xu said Ms. Zhang could file an appeal within ten days. The police then handcuffed Ms. Zhang and took her to the Xuanwu District Police Department for a two-day quarantine. She was then taken to a local hospital to have a chest X-ray, brain CT scan, electrocardiogram and blood test.
When the police took her to the Nanjing City Detention Center on October 29, she was rejected admission due to high blood pressure of 250/120 mmHg. Knowing that she was planning to appeal the verdict, the Xuanwu District Court agreed to have her released on bail, until the higher court made a decision about her appeal case.
Ms. Zhang filed the appeal on November 4. She argued that the police labeled Falun Gong materials confiscated from her as “cult promotional materials,” without showing the actual items in court. She added that Falun Gong wasn’t included in the cult list published by the Ministry of Public Security and that the ban on Falun Gong books had been lifted by the Chinese publication bureau in 2011.
Ms. Zhang also pointed out that the prosecutor accused her of “undermining law enforcement,” but he failed to articulate which law’s enforcement was undermined and what damage she alleged caused. As such, she concluded that the judge’s conviction for “undermining law enforcement” had no legal basis.
Perpetrators’ contact information:
Xu Jinhui (徐锦辉), secretary of Nanjing City Political and Legal Affairs CommitteeChang Heping (常和平), head of Nanjing City Police DepartmentWang Xiaomin (王筱敏), director of Nanjing City 610 Office: +86-18913862884
(More perpetrators’ contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)
Related report:
Senior Information Engineer Pleads Not Guilty for Distributing Falun Gong Materials
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