(Minghui.org) The Tongren City Wanshan District Procuratorate dropped its suit against two Falun Gong practitioners on March 1, 2017. The Wanshan District Court approved the withdrawal on March 10.
Mr. Yao Ruilin and Ms. Yang Donglian, both from Xinhuang County, Hunan Province but unrelated, were released on March 13, ending their illegal detention of over a year.
They had been arrested separately in January 2016 and held the Wanshan Detention Center in Guizhou Province.
Mr. Yao, in his 40s, is a taxi driver. He was arrested in Guizhou on January 14, 2016, by a plainclothes Tongren Police Department officer disguised as a customer. The police ransacked his home about five days after the arrest. One laptop and many Falun Dafa books were confiscated. The police, who had Mr. Yao with them, ransacked his home again in March 2016. Bystanters noticed marks of torture on Mr. Yao.
Ms. Yang, in her 50s, does sewing and mending for a living. She was arrested in the Xinhuang County People's Hospital dormitory on January 30, 2016. Her home was also ransacked twice. The police officers confiscated her sewing machine and Dafa DVDs. During the ransackings, Ms. Yan was seen handcuffed in a prisoner’s uniform. Her face was pale and swollen, and her long hair was cut short.
On May 6, the Wanshan Police Department accused both Mr. Yao and Ms. Yang of being involved in an illegal religious organization in order to undermine the law. But the Wanshan Procuratorate refuted the accusation. The police resubmitted the prosecution request twice after that, forcing the Procuratorate to file a lawsuit with the Wanshan District Court on September 30 and call for an appellate decision on December 22.
A trial was held in the Wanshan District Court on January 11, 2017. The trial lasted all day, but no judgment was handed down.
