(Minghui.org) A woman who developed breast cancer following her arrest ten months ago was admitted to prison on September 24, 2019, to serve time for practicing Falun Gong.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual and meditation discipline with the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance” that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Ms. Lan Lihua, a Shenyang City, Liaoning Province resident, was arrested on November 6, 2018, after being reported for giving a calendar with information about Falun Gong to a vegetable vendor.
The officers from Sujiatun District Domestic Security Division ransacked her home and also held her husband at the local police station for five hours.
While Ms. Lan was detained at Shenyang City Detention Center, she was subjected to various tortures, including being force-fed and hung up by her wrists. The physical torture and mental stress were contributing factors to her breast cancer diagnosis several months later.
The police submitted Ms. Lan's case to Sujiatun District Procuratorate on November 19, 2018. She appeared in Sujiatun District Court on May 5, 2019. Her lawyer entered a not guilty plea for her.
According to her family who attended the hearing, she was pale and very weak.
When Ms. Lan's family went to the court the day after the hearing to request bail for her, the presiding judge announced that she was sentenced to three years and ten months to Liaoning Women's Prison.
This is the second time Ms. Lan has been imprisoned at the same prison within the last four years. She was previously given a 14-month term on June 25, 2015, for filing a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former head of the communist regime who ordered the persecution of Falun Gong.
After Ms. Lan was released in August 2016, the police harassed her from time to time. The harassment before her latest arrest was on August 28 and 29, 2018, when the police went to her home, took her picture, collected her personal information and pressured her not to practice Falun Gong anymore.
