(Minghui.org) Ms. Chen Yanqiu, 58, from Chengde City, Hebei Province, had to make three court appearances between December 2024 and February 2025, because she practices Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999.
Ms. Chen who makes a living by selling boxed lunches to construction workers, was cooking at home on July 12, 2024, when a group of officers from the Chengde City Police Department, the Gaoxin District Police Department, the Chengde County Police Department, and the Fengyingzi Police Department broke in.
None of the officers wore uniforms. Without showing a search warrant, they raided Ms. Chen’s home. They cuffed her hands behind her back and carried her into a private car. She was not given a list of the items they confiscated.
The Shuangqiao District Procuratorate forwarded Ms. Chen’s case to the Shuangqiao District Court on November 12, 2024. The presiding judge set a court date for December 27, 2024, but did not notify Ms. Chen’s family. He claimed that because she was an adult, there was no need to inform her family. Her lawyer later found out about the hearing date and notified her family.
The hearing was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on December 27, 2024, but didn’t start until past 4 p.m. that day. Ms. Chen was not given anything to eat or drink while she waited, despite her repeated requests.
The judge did not allow Ms. Chen’s child to represent her as a non-lawyer defender on the grounds that she had been made a witness to the case. She argued that she did not say anything during the police interrogation that would incriminate her mother. She condemned the police for fabricating evidence. The judge then complained that his efforts of holding a hearing were in vain and aborted the hearing about one hour into the session.
A second hearing was held on January 7, 2025. This time the judge only allowed one member of Ms. Chen’s family to attend. Her lawyer protested but to no avail. She then had a relapse of her heart condition and the judge canceled the hearing. Her family later went to the local appeals office to complain about the judge’s decision to only allow one spectator at the session.
A third hearing was held on February 10, 2025. Ms. Chen’s lawyer pointed out that she was arrested solely because of her faith in Falun Gong. The police targeted her after a government official received a letter which originated from Chengde County, urging him to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. There’s nothing wrong in sending out letters about Falun Gong, but Ms. Chen did not write or mail the said letter.
The police however insisted that Ms. Chen was the author of the letter. They confiscated her Falun Gong books and printer and used the items as evidence against her. They also listed her child as a prosecution witness without her knowledge.
The police also went to the construction site Ms. Chen frequented to sell lunch boxes and offered 500 yuan reward to anyone who testified against her. The workers there replied that no one would incriminate a good person like Ms. Chen for some petty money. Her lawyer recorded the workers’ words in support of her and requested that they be included in the trial. The judge refused to admit this as evidence or allow the lawyer to call the construction workers to court to accept cross examination. The police officer’s fabricated evidence which was allegedly from the construction workers, however, was admissible in the trial.
The prosecutor also cited Ms. Chen’s prior arrest in 2016 (also for her faith) as another piece of evidence against her. She was released on bail that year after posting an 8,000-yuan bond, which was later returned to her in 2022. The two incidents (the arrests in 2016 arrest and in 2024) were not related, yet the judge allowed the prosecutor to link them together to have more “evidence” against Ms. Chen.
Falun Gong Gives Her Hope
Ms. Chen had a very difficult life. Her mother died when she was still a child. Her brother and sister-in-law often abused her. After she grew up and got married, her mother-in-law and brother-in-law also beat her. Her husband suddenly became ill and died in his 30s. Their two children were only 13 and 1 at the time. She worked hard to pay off the family’s debts and support her children. She developed many illnesses over the years, including rheumatoid arthritis, sciatica, tuberculosis, gynecological diseases, stomach problems, oral ulcers, insomnia, migraines, and constipation.
Ms. Chen later remarried and her new husband developed severe diabetes and complications two years later. He was rushed to the hospital multiple times and could no longer work. Ms. Chen made lunch boxes to support the family.
After Ms. Chen took up Falun Gong, her symptoms all disappeared and she also became more cheerful and considerate. She no longer resented her late first husband’s parents and siblings and kept close contact with them.
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