(Minghui.org) Ms. Chen Ping’s family recently traveled an entire day from their residence in Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, to the Sichuan Province Women’s Prison (located in Longquanyi District of the capital city of Chengdu), only to be denied visits with her.
Ms. Chen, 47, is serving two years for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. She was admitted to prison in November 2023 and her term is set to end around March 2025.
The prison barred Ms. Chen’s loved ones from seeing her on the grounds that she still refused to renounce Falun Gong. Per prison regulations, every inmate has the right to monthly visits with their families. Unable to see her, Ms. Chen’s family is very worried about her wellbeing, especially given that the prison had tortured some Falun Gong practitioners to death in the past.
Details of Ms. Chen’s Latest Persecution
Ms. Chen, a lecturer at the West China Normal University in Nanchong City, was arrested on July 26, 2020 and released under house arrest the next day. She stood trial at the Shunqing District Court on April 21, 2022 and was allowed to go home after the hearing. She was summoned to the local community office on March 17, 2023. As soon as she arrived, she was taken back into custody. A court worker who was waiting there announced that she was sentenced to two years.
Ms. Chen was taken to the Nanchong City Detention Center. She wrote an appeal but it was withheld by the guards, who also barred her family from visiting her. Her loved ones then hired a lawyer but the police in charge of her case threatened to arrest the lawyer and suspend his law license if he tried to see her or appeal on her behalf.
Ms. Chen thus missed the appeals deadline (which is usually within ten days of receipt of the verdict). She was admitted to the Sichuan Province Women’s Prison in November 2023.
This is not the first time that Ms. Chen has been targeted for her faith. She was previously given an unknown prison term in 2011 by the same Shunqing District Court. For details of her past persecution, see the related reports below.
Related reports:
Sichuan College Teacher Admitted to Prison After Being Barred from Appealing Her Wrongful Conviction
College Teacher Gets Two Years for Talking to Teenagers about Falun Gong
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