(Minghui.org) A 53-year-old woman in Tangshan City, Hebei Province lost her appeal against an already-served prison sentence on September 6, 2023. Ms. Wang Yaxin is considering filing a motion to reconsider her case.
Ms. Wang was arrested on July 7, 2022 and sentenced to ten months in prison with a 10,000-yuan fine shortly after her hearing on March 29, 2023. She filed an appeal while in detention and submitted more materials after she finished serving time on May 8, 2023. The local intermediate court ruled to uphold her original verdict on September 6, without holding an open hearing as she requested.
Arrest and Trial
Ms. Wang, a senior engineer for the Hebei Steel Company, and two other local women, Ms. Ji Guiqin and Ms. Guo Liyun, visited Ms. Du Zhonghua on July 7, 2022. Ms. Du’s ex-husband, who had divorced her many years ago, suddenly showed up and demanded money from her. When Ms. Du refused to pay him, he reported her and her three guests, claiming they were engaging in “illegal Falun Gong activities.”
Falun Gong is a mind-body practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since July 1999. Ms. Wang, Ms. Ji, Ms. Guo, and Ms. Du all practice Falun Gong.
A group of officers from the Shuiwuzhuang Police Station, including Gong Peng and Qi Xiaojing, soon arrived and arrested the four practitioners.
The police then split up and brought each practitioner to their respective homes for a raid. Some of the officers who raided Ms. Wang’s home were not in uniform and Gong Peng claimed he didn’t know who they were when she asked about their identities. After she twice demanded to see a search warrant, an officer flashed a piece of paper in front of her without allowing her to read it.
The police confiscated all of Ms. Wang’s electronic devices and other valuables, but didn’t include the devices on the list of confiscated items shown to her.
Ms. Wang was transferred to the Tangshan City First Detention Center on July 15, 2022, after serving seven days of administrative detention. The Kaiping District Procuratorate approved her arrest one month later, on August 19.
Zheng Zhiwen, an officer with the Kaiping District Domestic Security Office, was in charge of Ms. Wang’s case. In October 2022, he submitted her case to the Kaiping District Procuratorate, which transferred the case to the Lubei District Procuratorate.
While awaiting trial, Ms. Wang filed a complaint against the police for arresting and raiding her home without any legal basis. The detention center withheld her complaint for an unknown amount of time before forwarding it to the Kaiping District Procuratorate and the Lubei District Procuratorate. The two procuratorates, however, never responded to Ms. Wang.
Ms. Wang also filed an application to be released on bail and a request to dismiss from her trial the police-submitted evidence that had been illegally gathered. Her husband, Mr. Chen Liwu, helped her submit these documents, as well as her complaint against the police, to local judicial agencies and other relevant government agencies. Some of them called Mr. Chen back but were unable to directly address his wife’s concerns.
During a pre-trial hearing, Ms. Wang also raised her concerns about the admissibility of the police-submitted evidence against her and requested it be thrown out of her trial. Judge Yang Jian deceived her into believing such a request was unlawful. She thus withdrew her request to call the police-submitted evidence inadmissible.
Many of Ms. Wang’s family members and friends went to the Lubei District Court on March 29, 2023 to attend her hearing. Yet Judge Yang only allowed her immediate family members inside, with the excuse that there were too many family members. But when her family went inside, they noted that there were still many empty seats even when they sat one seat apart.
Ms. Wang’s husband Mr. Chen applied to represent his wife as a family defender, but Judge Yang demanded that he provide evidence to show that he wasn’t serving any probation term, knowing that he also practices Falun Gong. When Mr. Chen argued that there was no such requirement in the law, the judge said to him, “We have a different understanding of the law. You should listen to me.”
Ms. Wang testified in her own defense. She said that as a Falun Gong practitioner, it’s normal for her to have Falun Gong books at home. The prosecutor, Zhang Linfang, asked her where she got the books. She replied that no matter where she got the books, it wouldn’t show how she had “violated the law.”
The prosecutor also asked Ms. Wang whether she had been sentenced in 2018 for distributing Falun Gong materials, in an attempt to accuse her of being a repeat offender. Ms. Wang responded that she was wrongfully sentenced and she still had the right to file a motion to reconsider the case.
Ms. Wang said to the judge that it was a disgrace to the law that a Falun Gong practitioner like her was being tried simply for practicing Falun Gong and living by Falun Gong’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Just as she started to recount how she benefitted from the practice, the judge stopped her.
Ms. Wang also pointed out that there was a conflict of interest for the police who arrested her to “determine” that the materials confiscated from her were illegal.
Ms. Wang’s lawyer submitted a notice from the Chinese Publication Bureau, which ruled to lift the ban on Falun Gong literature in 2011, as well as the cult list published by the Ministry of Public Security in 2000, which didn’t include Falun Gong. The lawyer said the prosecutor wrongfully indicted Ms. Wang, despite knowing that no law has ever criminalized Falun Gong in China.
Appeals Rejected
Judge Yang sentenced Ms. Wang to ten months in prison with a 10,000-yuan fine not long after the court hearing. She filed an appeal with the Tangshan City Intermediate Court.
After she finished serving time on May 8, 2023, Ms. Wang submitted supplemental materials to judge Cheng Lanfang, who was in charge of her appeals case. She also requested that Cheng investigate her case to obtain more evidence and to hold an open hearing to hear her appeals case.
Cheng ruled on September 6, 2023 to uphold Ms. Wang’s original verdict without holding a hearing. She is in the process of filing a motion to reconsider her case.
Related Reports:
Hebei Woman Stands Trial for Her Faith in Falun Gong
Hebei Engineer Indicted for Her Faith
Tangshan Police Find No Evidence to Charge a Good Man
Engineer Illegally Detained, Daughter Traumatized, and Family Harassed
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