(Minghui.org) It was confirmed in early December 2023 that a 55-year-old woman in Yangquan City, Shanxi Province had been sentenced to 3.5 years for her faith in Falun Gong, a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Zhang Ruiping was arrested on April 19, 2023 and stood trial on September 27. The exact date of her sentencing is unknown. She is currently appealing the verdict.
Arrest
Wu Guoguang, captain of the Cheng District Domestic Security Office, led a group of officers and staked them outside Ms. Zhang’s home on April 19, 2023. As soon as her child opened the door to go to work, they barged in and raided her home.
They took Ms. Zhang to the Yangquan City Brainwashing Center, where she was forced to read, watch and listen to anti-Falun Gong propaganda. Qiao Jinhua and Gao Lifang, two former practitioners who had renounced Falun Gong under pressure, were assigned to “work on” Ms. Zhang.
The Yangquan City Police Department and the Nanshan Road Police Station transferred Ms. Zhang to the Yangquan City Detention Center on May 5. The Yangquan City Procuratorate issued a formal arrest against her on May 19 and submitted her case to the Yangquan City Court in mid-August 2023.
Trial
The Yangquan City Court delegated the case to its subordinate Pingding County Court. Ms. Zhang stood trial on September 27, 2023. The prosecutor charged her with “using a cult organization to undermine law enforcement,” a standard pretext used to frame and imprison Falun Gong practitioners.
Ms. Zhang’s lawyer refuted the allegation against her and emphasized that no enacted law in China has criminalized Falun Gong or labeled it as a cult.
The prosecution evidence included 2,000 yuan of banknotes confiscated from Ms. Zhang’s home and a laminating machine that someone claimed to have seen Ms. Zhang use to laminate informational materials about Falun Gong.
The banknotes had Falun Gong messages printed on them as a way to raise awareness of the persecution of Falun Gong, and in no way broke any law or caused any harm to anyone. Ms. Zhang and her lawyer challenged the prosecutor to present the banknotes in court for everyone to see what messages printed on them had harmful content. The prosecutor denied the request. His “witness” and the “laminating machine” were nowhere to be seen in court either, when normally the actual items of the prosecution evidence should have been presented during trial.
The hearing lasted a bit over one hour, with more than ten of Ms. Zhang’s family and friends in attendance. She was later sentenced to 3.5 years at an unknown date.
Past Persecution
Ms. Zhang took up Falun Gong in April 1999 and soon recovered from her stomach problems, enteritis, armpit pain, leg pain, and other ailments. She also improved her bad temper and got along well with her mother-in-law. She held firm to her faith after the persecution of Falun Gong began three months later and was arrested several times before her latest prison sentence.
She was arrested on March 2, 2004 and had her home raided after being reported for distributing Falun Gong informational materials in the countryside. After she was admitted to a local detention center, an inmate took the 200 yuan cash Ms. Zhang had with her, but the guards turned a blind eye to it. During her 21 days of detention there, she was forced to do hard labor without pay every day.
After her release, Ms. Zhang lived away from home for a period of time to avoid further persecution. Her employer and the local street committee harassed her family on a regular basis.
In July 2015, Ms. Zhang filed a criminal complaint against former Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin for ordering the persecution of Falun Gong, only to be arrested on October 22 that year. It was unclear how long she was detained.
The Nanshan Road Police Station harassed Ms. Zhang at home twice in 2017, on April 25 and August 29. They returned six times in 2018 to harass her, once on June 5 and five times between July 17 and July 27. Chief Zhai Jianbin and his three officers, including Qiang Dong, Zhang, and Shi, as well as a woman of unknown identity, were involved in the harassment on July 27, 2017. They threatened to call in a locksmith to open the door if Ms. Zhang didn’t. She let them in and officer Zhang videotaped her.
The police harassed Ms. Zhang, her family, and their relatives frequently from 2020 to March 2022.
Related reports:
Shanxi Woman Stands Trial for Her Faith, Lawyer Demands Her Acquittal
Exposing the Crimes Committed in Yangquan City Brainwashing Center
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