Heilongjiang Woman Sentenced to Four Years for Her Faith, Appeal Rejected

(Minghui.org) A resident of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province was sentenced on September 24, 2021 to a four-year prison term for practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999. She appealed the verdict, but the appeal was recently rejected by the Jiamusi City Intermediate Court.

Ms. Wang Shubo, 55, was arrested at her home on February 20, 2021 after the police barged in and ransacked the rented apartment. She was taken to the police station and later transferred to Jiamusi City Detention Center, where she is still detained at the time of writing.

Ms. Wang Shubo

Taking Up Falun Gong

Ms. Wang, originally from Yichun City of the same province, started practicing Falun Gong in 1997 and benefited from it—her heart disease was cured.

Ms. Wang left her hometown after the persecution started and went to work at a logistics company in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province. As she always tried her best to help her clients, many clients liked to use her service, making the company leaders happy. She worked there for many years.

Police Harassed Her Multiple Times Before Breaking Into Home

The police went to Ms. Wang’s company in 2015 to harass her after she used her real name to file a criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former leader of the communist regime who ordered the persecution. This brought tremendous pressure to the company leaders. Not willing to bring more trouble to the company, Ms. Wang resigned and went to Jiamusi City where she rented an apartment in Xiangyang District.

The local police kept harassing her between 2016 to 2018, including knocking on her door or calling her sister when they couldn’t find her. Her neighbors tried persuading her to move but she didn’t.

Her sister, who was working at a hospital in Jiayin Farm, later heard that her household registration had been transferred to the Jiamusi Public Security Bureau, which was directly in charge of persecuting her.

The police went to Ms. Wang’s home in 2019 and knocked on the door several times. She didn’t answer or open it. In 2020, due to the pandemic, her daughter Ms. Zhao Nanzhu, who was working out of town, moved in with her. The neighborhood committee carried out a “zero-out” campaign (a concerted effort to force every practitioner on the government list to renounce their faith) in the autumn season and knocked on her door, but she didn’t open it.

Officers from the Songlin Police Station barged into Ms. Wang’s home on February 20, 2021 and started ransacking her house. Two police officers grabbed her arms to prevent her from moving while another officer raided the home and confiscated over 70 Falun Gong books and materials, a laptop computer, a printer, a bookmark, a paper cutter, and 700 yuan banknotes printed with Falun Gong messages (due to strict information censorship in China, many Falun Gong practitioners use creative ways to raise awareness about the persecution, including printing short messages on banknotes).

Ms. Zhao had just returned home from work and happened to witness the raid and her mother’s arrest.

Facing Indictment

Ms. Wang was taken to the Songlin Police Station and interrogated. She was placed in criminal detention and taken to the Jiamusi Detention Center the next day. Due to the pandemic, the detention center refused to admit more people. Thus, Ms. Wang was transferred to Huanan County Detention Center. The police refused to provide a copy of detention notice to her family.

The police told Ms. Zhao on the same day to go to the police station for an interview about her mother’s case. She was asked questions related to Ms. Wang’s faith, such as what time of the day Ms. Wang did the Falun Gong exercises. Ms. Zhao was susequently ordered to sign the interview record and the list of items confiscated.

The police transferred Ms. Wang to Jiamusi Detention Center on March 18, and her arrest was approved on March 26.

Ms. Wang’s lawyer visited her in the detention center on May 30 and learned that her arrest had been approved and her case had been submitted to the Xiangyang District Procuratorate.

Her lawyer visited her again in the detention center on June 24, 2021. The lawyer learned that her case had been submitted to the Xiangyang District Court. The lawyer went to the court to read her case document, only to be told that it just arrived and wasn’t available yet.

First Hearing, Police Threatened Daughter

Ms. Wang was tried at the Xiangyang District Court on August 31. When the car that was transporting Ms. Wang arrived at the courthouse and was about to enter the left side of the gate, Ms. Zhao couldn’t wait to see her mother and rushed forward. Two guards alighted from the car and one of them told her to go away.

When Ms. Zhao insisted on seeing her mother, the guards threatened to arrest her and gave her a push on her left shoulder. Ms. Zhao shouted loudly that she wanted to see her mother. The guards rushed forward and threatened to arrest her if she refused to leave. Her relatives came over and comforted her while telling the guards to be understanding, as Ms. Zhao hasn’t seen her mother for half a year.

The guards replied that they understood how Ms. Zhao felt, and then drove the car into the courthouse compound.

During the hearing, Ms. Wang’s lawyer asked the prosecutor whether his client was charged with “making” or “spreading” Falun Gong materials. The prosecutor didn’t answer.

The presiding judge asked if Ms. Wang had any objections to the indictment. Ms. Wang said yes and started telling the judge how she has benefited from practicing Falun Gong, but the judge interrupted her. The judge asked if Ms. Wang pleaded guilty. She said no and urged him not to follow the persecution policy.

The hearing lasted 40 minutes before it was adjourned at 11 a.m. The judge announced that a verdict would be announced two weeks later.

Hoping to catch another glimpse of her mother, Ms. Zhao and her relatives waited for her outside the court. They left at about 3 p.m. after seeing the car departing from the court.

Sentenced to Four Years

Ms. Wang appeared at the Xiangyang District Court again on September 8. During the hearing, the prosecutor and presiding judge prevented Ms. Wang from defending herself while her lawyer raised more questions. The hearing ended after 15 minutes, and no verdict was announced.

On September 24, the Xiangyang District Court informed Ms. Wang’s lawyer that she had been sentenced to four years and fined 15,000 yuan. She is scheduled to be released on February 20, 2025.

Parties involved in the persecution:Wang Bin (王斌), president of Xiangyang District Court: [phone]Song Tao (宋涛), president of the criminal court at Xiangyang District Court: [phone], [phone], [phone], [phone]Liu Hongwei (刘洪伟), director of Jiamusi Detention Center: [phone], [phone]

(More participants in the persecution contact information is available in the original Chinese article.)