(Minghui.org) A 67-year-old woman in Kunming City, Yunnan Province, was sentenced to four years on July 19, 2024, for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999.
This is the third time that Ms. Guo Ling, who is retired from a food company, has been sentenced for her faith. She was given seven years in 2003 and sentenced to another four years in 2009.
Ms. Guo’s latest persecution stemmed from her arrest at around 9 p.m. on September 24, 2022. Police officers stopped her as she was walking home. Without showing their IDs or a search warrant, they raided her residence and confiscated many personal items.
Ms. Guo was taken to the Haikou Police Station around midnight. She was forced to sit in a chair overnight, while two male officers watcher her. Two other officers, Xia Wei and Lu Yi, interrogated her in the morning. She refused to answer any questions. Against her will, they collected her fingerprints and a blood sample that afternoon. Due to injuries to her leg incurred during her previous prison term, the detention center denied her admission and she was released that evening.
The police and residential committee staff members continued to harass Ms. Guo following her release. Officer Yang Yanjie often came to take photos of her or called her, asking where she was. On April 3, 2024, the police submitted her case to the Xishan District Procuratorate.
Ms. Guo was seized by officer Chen Jie and two others from the Haikou Police Station on the morning of July 2, 2024. They took her to the police station and arranged an officer to watch her. At around 11 a.m., two clerks from the Xishan District Court came and ordered her to sign a stack of paperwork. She refused to comply and they left.
At around 4 p.m., officer Chen showed up and took Ms. Guo to the courthouse, where judge Zhang Linmin issued an arrest warrant for Ms. Guo and ordered Chen to take her to the Xinhua Hospital for a physical exam. Again, due to Ms. Guo’s disability in her legs, the local detention center refused to admit her. The police took her back to the station at around 4 a.m. on July 3, 2024.
Police chief Zhu Guangting and deputy chief Zhu Guangming (no relation) told Ms. Guo in the morning that they would release her on bail. When Ms. Guo was taken back to the courthouse in the afternoon, judge Zhang confirmed that she would be released on a one-year bail and that her trial had been scheduled for July 16.
At around 8 a.m. on July 16, the police took Ms. Guo to the Xishan District Court. Judges Zhang, Yang Qin, and Xia Shuping, as well as clerk Li Dandan, prosecutor Su Jing of the Xishan District Procuratorate, and court-appointed lawyer Zhang Ruichen were present. Four police officers and two bailiffs sat in the gallery. Ms. Guo refused to be represented by the court-appointed lawyer and he left.
When she defended herself, Ms. Guo said that no law in China has ever deemed Falun Gong a crime. She demanded that the witnesses appear in court to accept cross examination, but judge Zhang turned her down. The judge also constantly interrupted Ms. Guo when she was talking.
At 3 p.m. on July 19, Ms. Guo was summoned to the police station, where judge Zhang announced she’d been sentenced to four years. She decided not to appeal.
Officer Chen ordered Ms. Guo to go to the police station again on August 12. He asked her if she could live independently and told her that judge Zhang had ordered her to have another physical exam.
Three officers took Ms. Guo to Xinhua Hospital on August 22 for a more comprehensive exam. Judge Zhang also ordered a heart related exam, which had to be done at a specialized hospital. When Ms. Guo was taken back to the police station later in the afternoon, her family was waiting for her. Officer Chen told them that judge Zhang had decided to have her serve time in prison. It’s not clear if she was taken back into custody.
See the article below for details of Ms. Guo’s past persecution.
Related Report:
Having Been Imprisoned 11 Years for Upholding Her Faith, Yunnan Woman Arrested Again
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